In an economy and business landscape supported by debt, credit rating agencies (CRAs) play a uniquely important role. Government and corporate bonds are widely held, as are structured products. Debt issuers include state and local governments, special purpose vehicles, and corporate issuers. CRAs rate issuers’ ability to repay debt on time and in full. In short, CRAs rate how reliable issuers are while they’re trying to raise capital—an important service in an economy so reliant on credit.
Egan-Jones Ratings Company, founded in 1995, is one such credit rating agency. Headquartered in King of Prussia, PA and with offices in New York, Egan-Jones is unique among its NRSRO peers by offering more credit ratings for private debt than any other credit rating agency[1]. Beyond credit ratings services, Egan Jones has also provided proxy advisory services since 2002, which involves offering investors vote guidance, vote execution, and reporting.
Egan-Jones is a nationally recognized statistical rating organization (NRSRO) registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission .[2] Egan-Jones also is recognized by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) as a Credit Rating Provider.
Egan-Jones CEO was named by Fortune Magazine as the number one person for warning about the 2007-08 credit crisis. These important designations have been assigned to an agency that leads its peers in reliability, accuracy, and operational excellence.
Empowering Investors Reliably and Effectively
Egan-Jones was founded in 1995 as an independently owned credit rating agency, with the goal of providing timely, accurate credit ratings for the firm’s clients—clients which now increasingly include some of the world’s largest financial firms. In their 30 years of operation, Egan-Jones has established itself as the market leader in private placement ratings, with over 3,000 private debt deals rated in 2024. These credit rating services, combined with Egan-Jones’ proxy services and other solutions, consistently empower investors.
“The firm’s ratings approach allows us to provide ratings for an ever-increasing number of transaction types and structures,” says CEO Sean Egan.
Egan-Jones has become the leading provider of private credit ratings and a history of notable public ratings calls including Enron, GE, GM, Worldcom, and more.
A Passionate, Expert Team
If Egan-Jones is going to provide the best services possible, they need to find and train the best possible team. The company leverages mentorship and the Socratic method for developing incoming talent, in addition to internal training programs. Egan-Jones looks to hire individuals with good hearts, strong minds, a passion for learning, and a personal belief in the company’s mission statement and service offering. Despite the company’s broad remote work policy, regular communication and annual team events bring the various members of Egan-Jones together for the benefit of everyone, from the employees, to the company, to their investor clients.
Part of building such an expert team is attracting the talent, and in today’s competitive employment market, that’s doubly important. Egan-Jones offers employees a broad work from home policy, robust health insurance benefits, and strong time-off policies. Once hired, employees tap into the company’s learning mindset benefit from continuous feedback and development.
Egan-Jones’ internal company culture is one of personal accountability, continuous improvement, and no monopoly on intelligence; team members are expected to innovate, think ahead, and take charge of their roles as best they can.
Cutting Edge Insights and Processes
A company that falls behind the curve of new technology, best practices, or consumer trends is likely to struggle and eventually fail. The Egan-Jones team keeps up with industry developments through regular attendance at industry conferences, subscriptions to industry publications, and engagement with thought leaders both in and out of the company.
Through their relationships with long-term clients, the agency is also able to leverage more specific insights that couldn’t be found anywhere else. These disparate avenues of learning are catalyzed by an internal company culture that denies the monopolization of intelligence—everyone on the team is empowered to share their insights, ideas, and innovations, which creates a fertile ground for long-term success and development.
It’s because of these forward-thinking company policies that Egan-Jones is able to consistently perform above and beyond the expectations of their industry, often through unique innovation. Many of these initiatives include a shift to more formalized analytics to further empower investors. Additionally, Egan-Jones provides supplementary support to investors and peers through published risk commentaries and thought pieces in the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, the premier online forum for discourse and research in the corporate governance field.
[1] Egan-Jones rated over 2,900 deals in 2023 and was the largest of all “small CRPs”, which collectively rated 6,988 instruments reported by U.S. Insurers in 2023 per the NAIC Capital Markets Special Report entitled “Private Ratings Among U.S. Insurer Bond Investment Continue to Rise and Have Nearly Tripled in Five Years”
[2] Egan-Jones is registered as an NRSRO for “financial institutions,” “brokers,” “dealers,” “Insurance companies” and “corporate issuers” as each term is defined by the SEC. Egan-Jones is not registered as an NRSRO for issuers of “government securities,” “municipal securities,” and “foreign government securities” or for “asset-backed securities,” as each term is defined by the SEC.
