The Islamic International Rating Agency (IIRA), the sole rating agency established to provide rating services to Shariah-compliant institutions, has signed a MoU with China-based Dagong Global Credit Rating Company.

The agreement will underlie the joint conduct of ratings of Islamic Financial Institutions, with international and national scale assessments being carried out jointly, and fiduciary assessments including Shari’a governance, being conducted by IIRA, said the Manama-based ratings agency.

IIRA has entered into an exclusive arrangement with Dagong, whereby both parties also plan to exchange and expand economic research, and jointly enhance rating coverage in Islamic countries.

Moreover, this alliance also targets the diversification of funding access to Islamic countries by encouraging greater Chinese investment into these countries as one of the largest creditor nations in the world presently.

Dagong was founded with the joint approval of The People’s Bank of China and the former state economic and trade commission in 1994. Dagong has since emerged as the biggest credit rating agency in the Chinese market and is the first non-western credit rating agency to have researched and released sovereign credit rating reports for over 90 countries.

Dagong Credit has rated over RMB 1 trillion worth of bonds in China and is recognized by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), in addition to regulatory authorities in China.-TradeArabia News Service