Foster & Ajax

Foster & Ajax Global Ratings

Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Financial services
Founded	1903 (1903) 1971 (1971) (present corporation status)
Founder	Robert Foster and Viliam Stephen Ajax
Headquarters	Tyrámen , Walneria
Revenue	2.61 billion US$ (FY 2011)
Number of employees	10,000+

Foster & Ajax Global Ratings (Walnerian: Foster & Ajax Veltvaltunk) is an Walnerian credit rating agency (CRA) that publishes financial research and analysis on stocks, bonds, and commodities. It is the biggest credit rating agency stationed in Walneria and its ratings have had a notable impact on economical activities both in and outside of Walneria. Its rating is usually adopted by the Walnerian Central Bank's 15-members-large collegium, which runs the Tyrámen Stock Exchange.

History

The Foster & Ajax corporation was founded by two trade partners, Robert Foster and Viliam Stephen Ajax in April 1903. Originally, the bussiness was meant to function as an advocy group and ranking group for trade unions, which were legalized after the 1899 revolution. The bussiness employed statisticians and other experts and cooperators, ranking the bussinesses by how reliable they are from the eyes of employees, if they pay fairly and if newly established labor laws are followed.

This system was followed until the mid 1920's, when a economic crisis struck the country. Civil unions were limited in a set of laws, effectively weakening the basis on which the company stood. In the 1927 parliamentary election, both the Social Democratic Party and the Communist Party gained major support from the populace, pushing in a left-oriented government. In this chaotic situation and the economic crisis ramping up, rankings slowly shifted from ranking the companies by following labor laws to companies' stability, as the job prospects were highly problematic and many lower class workers were more worried about the possibility of their employer folding than the prospects of labor union cohesion.

During the 1930's, up to the Stedorian-Walnerian War, Foster & Ajax focused on the ranking of companies in the lights of economic recovery and their stability, as well as overseeing if the companies generally follow laws and regulations set by the government. After the war ended, Foster & Ajax once again organized the economic recovery rankings, eventually moving to ranking the economic sustainibility of companies and later even countries.

In 1971, the company was partially set under the supervision of a set of laws set by a broad coalition of the Social Democratic Party and the Reformed Democratic Party. The Presiding Council was put under the supervision of Senate (after 1988 the National Assembly) and part of the rankings published by F&A were officially adopted by the Walnerian Central Bank, which in turn oversee the Tyrámen Stock Exchange.

Organization

At the top of the organization, the leading decisionmaking body, named the Presiding Council, is a group of 27 people. Because of the governmental oversight law, the National Assembly has to hold a vote about approving each candidate, with 5 candidates being elected by the Assembly-controlled Walnerian Central Bank. From the rest, 2 seats are reserved for the chairperson and Vice chairperson. Of the 15 remaining seats, 5 are elected by the employees of the company and 10 are elected from among a pool of qualified experts with a certification. Election is held every 6 years, with approval voting being utilized.

The council can not propose a change to rating on their own. Proposals to change ratings (or to approve new ratings) come from an expert operative (which are tasked with keeping track of smaller companies and independent contractors defined by special regulation, or by at least two of the four established "advisory groups", which are formed by a large group of experts (politologists/jurists, economists, technicians/engineers, psychologists/psychiatrists).

The decision of the rating agency may be later questioned by the 15-member-large Collegium of the Walnerian Central Bank, which is tied to the agency's rating via the F&A-TSE direct correspondence.

Ratings

Ratings are given based on advice and decisions made by expert operatives, who operate using mathematical models devised and ratified by the higher decisionmaking bodies, the Presiding Council and advisory groups. Ratings can be given to countries, companies, private individuals, agencies, and in special cases, to regions and counties.

The ratings explore the feasibility and safety of investment, as well as the reliability of the subject in question. Generally, in the case of foreign countries or larger companies, the ratings are focusing on five different subjects' ability and safety of investment. Those subjects are:

• Governments, government agencies and state-owned enterprises
• Government-organized non-governmental organizations
• Financial sector, such as the banks, money lending, bonds, credit etc.
• Privately or publicly owned corporations, organizations and services
• Private individuals and non-profit organizations

Rating levels

Foster & Ajax generally uses 10-level system, with letters A-F and double and triple lettering for A and F. This system, originally developed in the 1960's, is the general overview, devised using a weighted average of up to 70 different parameters, such as reliability in paying loans, the number of loans, criminal record, general financial stability and the ownership of specific monetary assets. This ranking is usually broken down and more data are accessible on request, with the rankings on the specific parameters.

These parameters differ in case of countries, companies, individuals etc., but generally follow a similar pattern. The rankings are usually explained in the following manner:

Rank	Explanation	Investment recommendation
		GVT	GONGO	FIN	CO	PRIV
AAA	Safest investment in this remedy, you may not consider cautions beside those of the nature of your investment	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
AA	Safe investment in this remedy, potential risks are minimal and may be effectively ignored	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
A	Safe investment. Despite dangers, on the longer scale, investment returns are almost guaranteed to return	—	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
B	Relatively safe investment, though possible future change may threaten the stability	—	—	Yes	Yes	Yes
C	Medium danger investment. The benefits are thought to outweigh the negatives, but the situation may change with little notice	No	—	—	Yes	Yes
D	Fluctuating danger. It is hard to predict the danger of development and as such any investment should be taken with caution	No	No	—	—	Yes
E	Fluctuating danger with a serious possibility of the loss of not only the gains, but also the initial investment in a small span of time	No	No	No	—	—
F	Dangerous investment. It is discouraged for investors to invest into the remedy of this rank for the threat of an imminent loss	No	No	No	No	—
FF	Very dangerous investment. Any investment to this rank is in serious threat of being lost overnight	No	No	No	No	No
FFF	Extremely dangerous investment. Any investment to this rank should be considered to be effectively lost	No	No	No	No	No

Special ratings

In 1993, following the outrage on the financial market and instability caused by the Silent Revolutions, other ratings outside of the general scale were devised for the cases of countries and institutions, whose characteristics cause a large disbalance in their respective parameters diverge in a way, that the standard scale does not paint a clear image of the reliability.

Rank	Explanation	Investment recommendation
		GVT	GONGO	FIN	CO	PRIV
SA	Only governmental investment can be protected by local authorities	Yes	—	No	No	No
SI	Investment's safety may rely on the possibilities of the company to defend it	Yes	Yes	—	No	No
BF	It is safe for only big companies to invest because of competetive enviroment with little oversight	—	Yes	Yes	—	No
SS	Local authorities require investors to stand apolitical and may in future impose regulations on foreign trade	No	Yes	Yes	—	No
GP	Governmental investment is threatened by protectionist policies, without effect on private companies	No	—	Yes	Yes	Yes
GB	Governmental investment is blocked and is risky, without effect on private companies	No	No	—	Yes	Yes

Oversight

The Presiding Council of Foster & Ajax is controlled by the Walnerian Central Bank, which itself has to answer to the National Assembly. The National Assembly can order an investigation of the council and may order testimonies from its members, as well as any employee of Foster & Ajax. The Central Administrative Court has the right to call for such an investigation, but also has the right to step in if it deems, that the National Assembly tries to assert its power over the autonomy of the organization in case there has been no major problem in the structure of the governance.

Controversy over Stedoria

See also: 2021 Stedorian-Walnerian Economic War

RNTV's news about the lowering of Stedorian and Velaherian ranks

On January 11, 2022, at 19:30, the Walnerian Central Bank recieved statistics from Foster & Ajax recommending to lower the rating of Velaheria and Stedoria in the Tyrámen Stock Exchange. The justification was the upset in financial stability and safety of investment because of the announced Velaherian military deployment in Stedoria was interpreted as a type of a martial law, due to the similarity of the actions carried out by Velaheria during the Silent Revolutions and similar situation causing the Crimson Revolution in Dazhdinia in 1998.

When the Tyrámen Stock exchange opened the next day at 8:30, companies originally taking part in the opening of Velaherian economy started quickly selling their assets in order to get rid of their properties that may possible be lost during an impending nationalization of foreign assets. By the end of the day, the stock value of Walnerian-owned assets in Stedoria dropped by 9.43% and in Velaheria by 17.55%.

Eventually Walneria announced that it was increasing the ratings, as the worst expected outcomes did not come to fruition and the biggest risks have subsided. Tyrámen Stock Exchange and Foster & Ajax have faced criticism by the companies, who lost money through panic-selling on January 12th, and a committee was formed to investigate the incident. Eventually, the final ruling was, that "The Foster & Ajax Global Ratings corporation did not fail with their methodology, but rather with the lack of public communication in the hours leading to, and during the events of January 12, 2022. The main responsibility for causing the panic is to be held with the media corporations, which expanded the story and caused its proliferation, causing mass hysteria which led to the events of January 12, 2022."