Reasons to promote corporate credit rating services

Contribute to market transparency

Information from the workshop “Vietnam’s credit rating market, development orientation and potential” organized by the Ministry of Finance in coordination with the Asian Development Bank on November 12 shows that Vietnam’s capital market has grown rapidly in recent years, playing an increasingly important role in attracting resources for investment and development.

*Ms. Pham Thi Thanh Tam - Deputy Director of the Department of Financial Institutions (Ministry of Finance) spoke at the workshop. Photo: Organizing Committee*

Along with the development of the capital market, the corporate bond market (TPDN), credit rating services (XHTN) were formed in 2014 with the promulgation of Decree No. 88/2014/ND-CP of the Government regulating credit rating services.

Over the past 10 years, credit rating activities have played an important role in enhancing market transparency, thereby promoting the safe, sustainable and specialized development of the market. This activity brings multi-dimensional benefits.

Specifically, Ms. Ba Thi Thu Hue - Commercial Director of FiinRatings said: For investors, credit ratings bring overall values throughout the investment process. Those values are demonstrated through the identification of transparent businesses, helping investors proactively screen and evaluate businesses. Along with that, it supports determining interest rates and terms in accordance with investment policies; post-investment monitoring as well as capital calculation through capital management methods based on risk coefficients.

Meanwhile, for businesses, credit rating results help to motivate issuing organizations to improve operational efficiency and financial transparency. When achieving a good credit rating, businesses have the opportunity to reduce capital mobilization costs.

To further promote this sector, an important step is the application of regulations on mandatory credit ratings, starting from 2023, for corporate bonds issued to the public and from 2024 for bonds issued privately. Recently, the Ministry of Finance has continued to advise the Government to submit to the National Assembly amendments to the Securities Law and the Enterprise Law to strengthen the responsibility of service providers, raise requirements for bonds offered to individual investors, thereby promoting more transparent market operations. Recently, Decree No. 245/2025/ND-CP of the Government stipulates mandatory credit ratings when issuing to the public.

*Delegates attending the workshop “Vietnam credit rating market, development orientation and potential”. Photo: Organizing Committee*

Boost credit rating

According to the representative of the Ministry of Finance, along with the development of the economy, the capital market and the corporate bond market are developing positively, especially after the Vietnamese stock market was upgraded to a secondary emerging market. In that context, the number of enterprises proactively conducting credit ratings to announce the results to the market is increasing.

To date, more than 140 Vietnamese enterprises in the real estate, securities, and energy production sectors have been rated when offering bonds. In 2024, 216.6 trillion VND worth of bonds from 54 issuers were rated, accounting for 46.3% of the total issuance value for the year.

In the first 10 months of 2025, the value of issued bonds with credit ratings reached VND 287.4 trillion, 2.1 times higher than the same period in 2024. By the end of October 2025, the total outstanding bonds of issuers with credit ratings reached nearly VND 461 trillion, accounting for about 33.7% of the total outstanding corporate bonds in the whole market. This shows the potential of credit rating services in Vietnam to continue to develop strongly in the coming time.

In order to promote the development of credit rating services, the Ministry of Finance has been actively coordinating with trusted partners to implement technical support activities, disseminate laws and provide training on credit rating services in Vietnam. In November 2025, the Ministry of Finance organized the Workshop "Vietnam's credit rating market, development orientation and potential" in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to disseminate regulations on mandatory credit rating for corporate bonds in Vietnam.

The workshop was also an opportunity for the Ministry of Finance to listen to the sharing of international best practices to ensure the quality of credit rating services and compliance with the law. At the same time, exchange and discuss with market members the role of monitoring and periodically evaluating credit rating results as well as the internal control system in preventing and handling conflicts of interest at credit rating enterprises.

According to Mr. Le Minh Hung - State Securities Commission (Ministry of Finance), the system of securities legal documents on credit rating for corporate bond issuance includes Securities Law No. 54/2019/QH14; Law No. 56/2024/QH15 amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Securities Law; Decree No. 155/2020/ND-CP guiding the Securities Law...

In particular, the Strategy for Stock Market Development to 2030 also clearly states the role and responsibility of credit rating organizations in the corporate bond market, moving towards requiring bond-issuing enterprises to be credit rated, forming habits and practices of using credit rating results when issuing and investing in corporate bonds.

Experts also said that the Vietnamese Government has been prioritizing the development of the capital market, especially the corporate bond market, according to international best practices. To support that policy, international experience shows that it is necessary to develop a credit rating culture in Vietnam.

The Ministry of Finance said it will continue to research and advise on perfecting the development orientation of the credit rating market so that this field can truly promote its role, moving towards a transparent, safe and sustainable capital market, in accordance with the policies of the Party and Government.

Source: https://congthuong.vn/ly-do-can-thuc-day-dich-vu-xep-hang-tin-nhiem-doanh-nghiep-430055.html