The Bank of Russia has launched a unified database of ratings of domestic companies – a rating repository that includes the ratings of legal entities and bonds from four credit rating agencies (CRAs).These include the Analytical Credit Rating Agency (ACRA), Expert RA, National Rating Agency (NRA), and National Credit Ratings (NCR).Now all the information is available in an aggregated format, said Nikolai Ivanov, Deputy General Director of Expert RA, in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta. As a result, this simplifies decision-making for investors.In a situation where Russian companies are forced to close their financial information to the public due to sanctions, credit ratings are one of the few tools that investors can use to assess their risks, emphasized N. Ivanov.A credit rating is an assessment of a company's ability to meet its obligations. It is necessary to determine where to invest money. The higher the rating, the more reliable the borrower is, and vice versa, explained Yevgeny Kogan, a professor at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE) and founder of the Bitkogan project, to RG.Credit ratings of companies and securities help to determine what to buy in which portfolios."Private investors without experience in analytical work find it difficult to conduct credit analysis independently. But here we have detailed and professional information in one place. The repository will be useful for both investors and analysts," concluded E. Kogan.According to the latest data, in June the number of Russians opening brokerage accounts on the Moscow Exchange reached 32.4 million people. In the first half of the year, their number grew by more than 2 million.