Bond credit rating

n investment, the bond credit standing assesses the credit score worthiness of a company's debt issues. It's analogous to credit score ratings for people and countries. The credit rating is a financial indicator to potential buyers of debt securities equivalent to bonds. These are assigned by credit standing companies akin to Moody's, Commonplace & Poor's, and Fitch Rankings to have letter designations (akin to AAA, B, CC) which signify the quality of a bond. Bond ratings below BBB/Baa are considered to be not funding grade and are colloquially called junk bonds.

Moody's		S&P		Fitch
Long-term	Short-term	Long-term	Short-term	Long-term	Short-term
Aaa	P-1	AAA	A-1+	AAA	F1+	Prime
Aa1		AA+		AA+		High grade
Aa2		AA		AA
Aa3		AA-		AA-
A1		A+	A-1	A+	F1	Upper medium grade
A2		A		A
A3	P-2	A-	A-2	A-	F2
Baa1		BBB+		BBB+		Lower medium grade
Baa2	P-3	BBB	A-3	BBB	F3
Baa3		BBB-		BBB-
Ba1	Not prime	BB+	B	BB+	B	Non-investment grade speculative
Ba2		BB		BB
Ba3		BB-		BB-
B1		B+		B+		Highly speculative
B2		B		B
B3		B-		B-
Caa1		CCC+	C	CCC	C	Substantial risks
Caa2		CCC				Extremely speculative
Caa3		CCC-				In default with little prospect for recovery
Ca		CC
		C
C		D	/	DDD	/	In default
/				DD
/				D