creditworthiness of an individual or entity.
A credit rating not only
determines whether or not a borrower will be approved for a loan or debt issue but also determines the interest rate at which the loan will need to be repaid.A credit rating or score can be assigned to any entity that seeks to borrow money—an individual, corporation, state or provincial authority, or sovereign government.
Individual credit is rated on a numeric scale based on the FICO calculation, bonds issued by businesses and governments are rated by credit agencies on a letter-based system