Saudi Arabia grants Moody’s license to conduct credit rating activities

Credit ratings and research provider Moody’s Investor Service has been authorized by the Saudi Capital Market Authority (CMA) to conduct credit rating activities in the Kingdom.

Moody’s, which just opened a new office in Riyadh, is the third rating agency to receive a license from the Saudi market regulator, following the authorization of Fitch in April and Standard & Poor’s late last year.

"A Moody's rating can facilitate access to both domestic and international pools of debt capital,” said Jehad El-Nakla, Moody's Investors Service Middle East general manager.

“We expect debt issuance to continue to increase in Saudi Arabia as demonstrated by the Kingdom's debut international bond issuance in 2016," he added.

Since low oil prices have started impacting liquidity in local banks, the Kingdom has moved towards more bond issuances, allowing a large investor base to be tapped in order to reduce strain on the local banking system. In April, the Kingdom completed the world’s largest ever sukuk issuance of $9 billion.

In July, it raised SAR 17 billion ($4.5 billion) from its first domestic sukuk sale this year, Argaam earlier reported.