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Over the last ten years or so, economic actors in French-speaking West Africa have begun to take the bend in the qualitative approach of transparency and good governance inspired by the exercise of financial rating.

Despite a still timid movement, French-speaking Central Africa has followed the lead of the West African region and is helping to make financial rating an increasingly common tool for assessing credit quality.

Although investors’ consideration of financial ratings as a tool for measuring their exposure to the risk of default by issuers of securities is still low, the changes in the financial and banking centre since 2009 are encouraging.

Indeed, in 2009, the West African regional financial market instituted financial rating as a means of assessing the default risk of issuers and structured finance, which makes it possible, among other things, to

Limit, under certain conditions, the use of guarantees and, consequently, the increase in the cost of bond issues;
reduce the asymmetry of information between capital providers and entities seeking to finance their development through the financial market.

By giving confidence to investors, the regulatory authorities are giving themselves the means to improve the depth of the financial market and its development, to make it a definite financing niche for the sub-regional economy, like all other financial centres elsewhere in the world.

In this game, the recent regulatory decisions in the banking sector, which introduce financial rating for the evaluation of banks’ counterparty risks, are a strong signal that the evolution of the sub-regional banking market environment over the last decade has been taken into account.

The contribution of Bloomfield Investment Corporation during this period was made through constant pedagogical work (within the framework of support to capital market authorities and training sessions, seminars, conferences) and the instilling of a culture of rating through practice among private and institutional economic actors in Francophone Africa and beyond.
Using methodologies and methods of rigour common to all financial rating agencies, Bloomfield Investment Corporation, takes into account the contextual framework of operations of rated entities to provide a response adapted to market expectations.

The French-speaking economic zones of West and Central Africa are working to close the gaps that existed with the rest of the world in terms of improving the credit quality of the various stakeholders.

In operation since 2007, Bloomfield Investment Corporation continues to contribute to building market confidence through :

Credit Rating

Market Intelligence

A Counterparty Risk Management Solution for SMEs