credit ratings, investment protection Global Investment Advisors, Inc. We Optimize Your Ratings
investment advisors, credit rating protection GIA, Inc., Enhancing and Protecting your Credit Ratings
 
The Solution
The Solution

How GIA Works
GIA is staffed by former rating agency analysts and officers. We know how the agencies think and which rating factors are crucial. We know the arguments that influence both the analysts and the Rating Committees. We know what drives agency decisions.

GIA has worked closely with ministries of finance and central banks in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North America. We have advised the treasury and investor relations departments of corporations and banks.

GIA works on site with clients, addressing each one’s specific circumstances. We help clients prepare for the crucial agency meetings, developing strategies, and providing the questions the agencies are likely to ask — plus the answers they like to hear.

Unlike the investment banks, GIA works full time on ratings advisory, using only senior staff and offering independent advice with no underwriting conflict of interest. Unlike these bankers, we have decades of inside-agency experience.

GIA’s programs range from one-day audits and seminars to annual retainers, and include a follow-up advisory hot-line free of charge. We undertake customized research and produce ratings reports and surveys tailored to the client’s needs.

Publications
GIA publishes three types of original research and information for its clients regarding the inside workings of the rating agencies and the implications of developments in the capital markets for ratings:

  1. The monthly GIA Bulletin mailed to clients free of charge. The one- or two-page Bulletin covers in succinct form such topics as:
    • Ratings as Report Cards
    • Agency Credibility and Secrecy
    • Financial Stress Factors
    • Market Shocks and Credit Ratings
    • How a Rating Committee Works
    • Good Governance and Credit Ratings
    • SEC and EU Oversight of the Agencies
    • Communicating with the Rating Agencies
  2. A series of Occasional Papers, two-to-four pages in length and published several times a year, that deal with ratings issues more in depth than the GIA Bulletin. The Occasional Papers offer insights and advice to GIA clients. Topics have included:
    • Issuer Leverage with the Rating Agencies
    • A Ratings Success Formula
    • Rating Agency "Retaliation"
    • Hidden Motives in Agency Operations
    • Asset Sales and Credit Ratings
    • Unsolicited Ratings
      • We will be pleased to send you a sample copy of the GIA Bulletin or an Occasional Paper. Just contact us by phone, fax or e-mail.
  3. GIA’s Report for sovereign issuers on "How to Get an Upgrade." This 230-page book, updated annually, is a manual that explains the factors behind sovereign upgrades. Reports for banks and corporations on "How to Get an Upgrade" are in the preparatory stage. 
    • GIA’s analysis of all sovereign upgrades, national and subnational, since 1985 to determine causal and correlative factors
    • Thirteen obstacles to an upgrade -- and how to overcome them
    • How rating agency practices affect sovereign issuers
    • The subjectivity of credit ratings: how you can influence the result
    • What ex-rating agency officials say about the determinants of upgrades
    • What the rating agencies themselves say on the subject of upgrades
    • A confidential survey of sovereign issuers regarding how they optimize their credit ratings
    • There are two versions of this Report:
      1. The "generic" or standard manual that contains all the above data and insights 
      2. The "customized" version that builds on the standard manual by including client-specific recommendations on how best to secure an upgrade.
      • This exceptional volume is an important addition to your capital markets library. Contact GIA by phone, fax or e-mail for more information on this unique publication.