In day two of announcing the annual winners of our fixed-income research poll we focus on the best analysts and ratings agencies.
Citi's Joanna Chua moved from third place last year to second place this year, and a newcomer to the top three is Nomura's Pradeep Mohinani.
The results for the rating agencies are once again quite similar to last year's rankings. The majority of the respondents chose Standard & Poor's as their agency of choice. For example, with regard to influencing decisions on sovereign credits, 55.1% of the respondents this year said S&P affected their decisions (last year 51% held that view). When it came to banks, 49.7% of the investors turn to S&P (last year 46% chose the agency), and for corporate credits 53.6% of investors chose S&P (last year 51% selected the agency). S&P only gave up ground, and just an inch, when it came to structured finance products -- with 48.3% of respondents selecting S&P this year. Last year 49% said S&P was their go-to agency on such issues.
Finally, we asked investors if they thought the quality of the rating agencies' Asian research had improved during the past 12 months. As many as 61.4% think it has stayed the same, which indicates a steadily growing view of either relative satisfaction or resignation with the status quo -- as 59% expressed that view last year and 47% held the view two years ago during the height of the global financial meltdown. Only 15.9% of our respondents say that the quality has decreased (down from 25% last year and 38% the year before) and 22.7% say the research is getting better.
For more results from our fixed-income poll, please see day one of the results and also look out for our 2010 Bond Markets Guide, which will be published as a supplement to the upcoming November issue of FinanceAsia magazine.
