An ECAI (External Credit Assessment Institution) is an entity, recognised by the competent Supervisory Authority (Bank of Italy), which can produce external assessments of creditworthiness for use by the banks in order to calculate risk-weighted capital adequacy ratios, applying the standard approach provided for by the Basel II Framework.
Cerved Group Rating is the result of analyses, research and studies. Cerved Group Rating provides the organisations concerned (banks, investors, firms...) with an assessment of the risk of default of the rated entity. As an external rating issued by a recognized ECAI Cerved Group rating can be used by banks for calculating their capital adequacy ratios according to the Standard Approach provided for by the Basel II Framework, [...]	Cerved Group assigns the Rating by means of a hybrid process which in the initial phase involves assessment of the probability of insolvency which determines the rating class. The model has been developed taking into account the time series in the Cerved Group database containing the official and proprietary data of over 1.5 million Italian companies. [...]	For over eighty years Cerved Group has been offering the Italian market financial information services and has specialised in the assessment of creditworthiness of large, medium-sized and small enterprises, typically not listed on the stock exchange. Cerved Group has always been attentive to the quality of its services and, throughout its history, has adopted and rigorously applied policies, procedures and internal controls designed to safeguard the objectivity and integrity of the rating assessments expressed. [...]