Credit Rating Agency AD (BCRA) is an entirely private company established as a joint-stock company in 2002. BCRA`s business activity was officially announced and started at a press conference on April 23th, 2003.

On April 4th, 2011, BCRA became the first Bulgarian and the third fully recognized credit rating agency, registered in the EU. The Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) and European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) have registered BCRA in accordance with Regulation (EC) No. 1060/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council on credit rating agencies (the Regulation) after a nearly one-year comprehensive survey. The Regulation came into force since the 2009 summer and according to its requirements only the registered credit rating agencies under the Regulation are entitled to assign ratings that are also applied for regulatory aims. Since then, without any territorial or other limitations, the credit ratings BCRA assign, are valid throughout the EU and are entirely equal to those of the other credit rating agencies, recognized by ESMA.

BCRA is specialized in assigning ratings to financial institutions incl. banks, insurance companies, leasing companies, pension assurance companies, etc., as well as bond issues of public and private issuers. BCRA's scope of activity also includes elaborating of creditworthiness analysis and assigning a credit rating to municipalities, as well as assigning a credit rating to companies in Bulgaria working in various fields such as trade, manufacturing, services, energetic, construction, etc.

The active participation of BCRA in the economic life in Bulgaria and establishment of a practice for assignment and application of a credit rating is an opportunity to facilitate the relations between public and private market participants, to compare them, to increase the processes focused on reduction of grey economy's share and to increase transparency of the economy.

BCRA is managed by Board of Directors. The structure of the credit rating agency includes Advisory Board, consisted by reputable economic experts, and their analyses contribute to build the public opinion in Bulgaria. BCRA have a team of financial analysts with a solid experience for all economic sectors, micro and macroeconomists who are distinguished lecturers at universities in Bulgaria and recognized experts in business assessment and finance.