AKRA has been in the making since July 2015, following a drop in Russia’s sovereign and corporate international ratings, which has effectively cut off Russian business from the international capital markets.

Russian regulators hope that AKRA boosts the Russian market and helps overcome domestic and foreign investors’ distrust in Russian assets.

“Setting up a national rating agency is the same as building railways or electric grids. Ratings are infrastructure. Where there is life, there is a need for infrastructure. Where there is no life, infrastructure will be of little use. A similar logic applies here”, said Trofimova.

“I consider the current lull in the financial markets a welcome opportunity for our launch, because we will have enough time to establish the processes correctly and be fully prepared for the financial markets’ comeback”, she added.

According to Trofimova, who was appointed the agency CEO today, banks such as Sberbank, VTB, Rosselkhozbank, Alfabank, Rosgosstrakh insurance company, Severstal and other majors are among the AKRA pool of investors. The state has no share in the agency capital.

Trofimova said that AKRA will stay non-public at least for the first three years and its first ratings will be published in Q2-Q3 2016.

Financial markets megaregulator, Project Group №1