Press Releases

Press Release: LMA and PPIA publish joint response to ESMA Call for Evidence on restricted subscription and private credit ratings

The Loan Market Association (LMA) and the Private Placement Investors Association (PPIA) have submitted a​ joint response​ to ESMA’s Call for Evidence, highlighting the important role of non-public credit ratings where issuers require confidentiality over sensitive strategic, financial or structuring information.

Key message – Private and restricted subscription credit ratings meet this legitimate market need and are valuable tools within the ratings ecosystem. However, they serve distinct use cases and are not interchangeable. Both would benefit from targeted regulatory clarification to support more effective use by market participants.

• Private credit ratings
  • Are a well-established and robust product, prepared to the same analytical standards as public ratings
  • Are constrained by the current 150-person distribution limit, which as currently applied to both institutions and natural persons restricts investor due diligence, reporting and secondary trading
  • Would benefit from clarification that the limit applies at the level of investing institutions only
• Restricted subscription credit ratings
  • Are a nascent product with significant potential, including for regulatory capital purposes
  • Remain underutilised due to an unclear regulatory framework, limiting both supply and demand
  • Would benefit from greater clarity, including the ability for issuers to procure ratings for multiple investors

The LMA and PPIA call for targeted regulatory clarification to unlock the full potential of both products, supporting more efficient capital allocation and broader access to non-bank financing for European issuers.

Jesse Beardsworth, Interim Head of UK & EU Public Policy & Regulatory at the LMA:

"Private and restricted subscription credit ratings are essential tools for modern capital markets, enabling high-quality credit analysis to be shared while preserving necessary confidentiality. Targeted regulatory clarification would unlock capital and support more efficient financing for European issuers."

Notes to editors:

Click here to access our full response.

Media contact: 

For media enquiries or to discuss the LMA’s response and recommendations in detail, please contact Leyla Ghaffar-Zadeh, Head of Communications, LMA at ​Leyla.Ghaffar-zadeh@lma.eu.com​.