Turkey picks Fitch for bond issuances

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

The Turkish Treasury has signed an annual contract with Fitch and Moody’s for rating its bonds. Fitch upgraded Turkey to investment level in November.

The Turkish Treasury has signed a deal with Fitch and Moody’s, two of the three leading credit rating agencies, for evaluation of its 2013 bonds.

Until today the Treasury was not working on creating annual agreements but on separate contracts for each bond issuance with Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s but credit rating agency Fitch joined the club under the new deal.

The agency upgraded Turkey to its first investment level since 1994. Moody’s rates Turkey one notch below investment grade, while S&P puts it a rung lower still.

The Treasury should have at least two international agencies rate its bonds according to market rules and common practices. The involved rating agencies get a small share in the government’s bond issuance operations.

Meanwhile, Moody’s downgraded Greek Cyprus’s government bond rating on Jan. 10 by three notches from B3 to Caa3, citing the anticipated increase in the government’s debt burden. The downgrade to middle-range junk bond status was driven by the further increase in the amount of government support that Greek Cypriot banks are likely to require. Greek Cyprus’ banks face rising delinquencies on loans to Greek Cypriot and Greek customers.