Major Players in the Credit Market in Romania in the European Context

The present article illustrates the context in which European credit rating agencies emerged, their roles and modus operandi. To exemplify, we proceeded to a comparative, quantitative analysis of two such companies, respectively the Credit Bureau JSC of Romania and Schufa Holding AG in Germany between 2009 and 2013. We present the establishment and the evolution of the two agencies, also touching on aspects related to some relevant macroeconomic indicators concerning the retail credit market in both countries such as the income per capita, total population, gross domestic product, the declared unemployment rate as a percentage of the total labor force, the number of domestic loans and the percentage of the adult population coverage by the rating agencies.