The Bank of Russia has launched a unified database of ratings for domestic companies – a rating repository that combines the ratings of legal entities and bonds from four credit rating agencies (CRAs).

The list includes the Analytical Credit Rating Agency (ACRA), Expert RA, National Rating Agency (NRA), and National Credit Ratings (NKR).

Now all the information is available in an aggregated form, Nikolai Ivanov, Deputy General Director of Expert RA, told Rossiyskaya Gazeta. This ultimately makes it easier for people to make investment decisions.

In the context where Russian companies are forced to keep their financial information private due to sanctions, credit ratings are one of the few tools that investors can rely on to assess their risks, Ivanov emphasized.

A credit rating is an assessment of a company's ability to meet its obligations. It is needed to decide where to invest money. The higher the rating, the more reliable the borrower is, and vice versa, explained Evgeny Kogan, a professor at HSE and the founder of the Bitkogan project, to RG.

Credit ratings of companies and securities help determine which portfolio to buy what.

"It is difficult for private investors without analytical experience to carry out credit analysis on their own. Here, we have received detailed and professional information in one place. The repository will be useful for both investors and analysts," Kogan concluded.

According to the latest data, in June the number of Russians who opened brokerage accounts on the Moscow Exchange reached 32.4 million. In the first half of the year, their number grew by more than 2 million people.