CreditSights

Financial institutions face challenges in keeping up with the constant barrage of information in the credit market. They require a reliable partner to monitor and evaluate credit situations, providing clear and timely insights to make informed investment decisions. CreditSights fulfils this role. Leveraging quantitative models and a team of over 150 specialists, the company delivers impartial credit market research, covenant analysis, and leveraged finance news and data to more than 20,000 financial professionals from many of the world’s leading financial institutions, including banks, insurance companies, investment advisors, and asset managers globally.

“What distinguishes us is that we offer the most in-depth research and insights from renowned credit market and legal experts. We also provide unique, highly specialized content, such as corporate credit risk estimates and comprehensive data on loan and bond covenants,” says Mike Lavin, head of data and analytics at CreditSights.

For over two decades, CreditSights has been offering investment recommendations for investment-grade and high-yield issuers. In 2021, it merged with Fitch Solutions, a company that had previously acquired two entities— Covenant Review, a global authority on bond and loan covenants, and LevFin Insights, a leading source of accurate, in-depth news and analysis on global leveraged finance markets. This new combination enables CreditSights to deliver a single platform uniting the unique content and tools from all three products into one site to deliver macro-to-micro views on credit: from expert market strategy overviews and trend analyses to comprehensive credit issuer research, down to in-depth news, data and opinions throughout the full life cycle of credit instruments.

CreditSights is set to re-launch its Risk Products Solution, expected to significantly expand coverage and functionality for clients. This enhanced version will offer objective, quantitatively based credit risk assessments for over 40,000 companies worldwide.

Clients can use Risk Products data and screening tools to monitor individual credits and credit portfolios, swiftly identify risk signals and investment opportunities in portfolios, enhance internal credit research and models, complement qualitatively oriented research, and promptly evaluate new debt issuers.

The content within Risk Products comprises three primary credit risk assessments; the Credit Risk Estimate, a one-year forward probability of default based on a hybrid model combining equity market data and financial statement information; the Credit Quality Score, a medium-term indicator of credit quality that has proven effective in anticipating agency rating actions; and the Fallen Angel Score, an estimate of the likelihood of a company’s downgrade from investment grade to high yield over the next 12 months. These scores are developed and updated by CreditSights’ team of quantitative analysts, drawing on more than 20 years of data.

Clients can search for individual companies on the CreditSights website, applying filters based on market segments and various risk factors. They can also create watchlists containing hundreds of names of interest and use Risk Products to track these names over time. The new Risk Products solution will be seamlessly integrated into CreditSights’ previously mentioned single platform, offering a unique perspective on credit issuers and instruments.

As an example of that unique and comprehensive perspective, in April 2022, Carvana became a widely-followed high yield credit when it issued new 10.25 percent notes, effectively doubling its debt load. From the launch through the restructuring, CreditSights’ team of analysts, lawyers, and journalists collaborated to provide clients with critical insights on Carvana’s fundamental, structural and market risk factors. “With the bonds losing half their value in less than a year, investors needed constant updates, and our unique combination of timely expertise and data proved invaluable,” says Lavin.