In a Nutshell
Wikirating is a global organization for credit ratings, its methods and accordant data.
It offers transparent and unbiased information for investors, analysts, economists and everyone interested in credit ratings.
Presentation: “Wikirating in a nutshell”
Who we are
Wikirating is an independent transparent global organization for credit ratings. It offers a centralized place for all credit rating related topics, and credit ratings for countries, corporations, cryptoassets and other financial products. Wikirating unites rating experts, economists and investors.
Investors want to have reliable and unbiased information about their investments, which very often are not ensured. Wikirating wants to improve this issue for all asset classes. When we started in 2011 we have focused our engagement on sovereign credit ratings. With our annual publication of sovereign credit ratings for nearly all countries in the world, we now contribute to a diversified view for better investment decisions. We also seek to offer more and more information about corporation ratings and recently crypto ratings.
The Wikirating platform is financed and operated by the Wikirating Association, all back office operations (maintenance, site administration, features development and implementation), as well the front office activities (financials, communication, marketing) are performed by members of the association and voluntary contributors.
Based in Zurich (Switzerland), the Board provides leadership for international initiatives, supports the experts board and coordinates work through knowledge sharing and coalition building. The Board is responsible for the finances of the association. It plans research projects and is responsible for the platform operation. It serves as a transparent knowledge centre, offering insights into the dynamics of rating topic.
Current board members (in alphabetical order):
- Dr. Aleksandra Credé, Board Member
- Dorian Credé, Chairman of the Board
- Marion Dogarth, Board Member
- Dr. Andreas Gmünder, Advisory Board Member
- Prof. Dr. h.c. Günter Koch, Advisory Board Member
What we do
Wikirating offers the following features and set of information:
- Credit ratings of countries, cryptoassets and companies
- Credit rating methods, such as the Sovereign Wikirating Index or the Public Sector Credit Framework
- Experts Board, consisting of international acknowledged credit rating experts
- Blog Site, credit rating related articles published and discussed by experts and guest contributors
- Discussion Board to share and exchange ideas and feedback with other community members
History
The idea and vision of Wikirating, a transparent and collaborative rating platform, was initiated in spring 2010 by Dorian Credé – in the middle of the world financial and economic crisis. Shortly after Erwan Salembier joined Dorian to help building up a community for Wikirating.
Wikipedia is the model for Wikirating, an internet platform allowing contributions, data corrections and consultation – self-controlled and regulated by the community, but with a stronger peer-review concept. The open source software MediaWiki, which is also used by Wikipedia, initially fulfilled most of the needs of Wikirating.
World map showing real GDP growth rates for 2009. (Countries in brown are in recession) - Source: Wikipedia.
Main page of the first prototype of the Wikirating site in July 2010.
The first prototype of the platform has been offline developed until July 2010. A little bit more than one year later the Wikirating platform was officially launched on 3. October 2011.
In February 2012 Erwan left Wikirating, and in November 2012 a strategic alliance with the US not-for-profit rating provider Public Sector Credit Solutions (PSCS) was concluded. In January 2013 the Swiss non-profit Wikirating Association was founded, in order to ensure the further development of the platform.
Since the official launch, Wikirating received a substantial worldwide attention, it was mentioned in more than 80 international press articles in 19 countries – beneath Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Switzerland), Financial Times (Germany) and Financial Post (Canada).
Dorian was invited to TEDx Vienna in November 2012, where he talked how the crowd intelligence was able to rate nearly all countries in the world. In 2013 the Wikirating Experts Board was established and the Wikirating platform reached more than 100’000 unique visitors from nearly all countries in the world.
TEDx Talk 'Are we smarter than credit rating agencies?', November 2012 in Vienna
Since 2021 Wikirating regularly updates crypto ratings for Bitcoins, Ethereum and hundreds of cryptoassets.
The concept of the Wikirating crowd intelligence approach for credit ratings received in 2014 the Top25 Ideas Award (out of nearly 250 projects) at the contest ‘Venture‘ of McKinsey and the ETH Zurich.
In 2020 Wikirating was awarded with the TOP 5 Swiss Risk Award and in January 2021 Wikirating joined forces with Baserank and Weiss Ratings in a strategic alliance to support independent cryptoratings for Bitcoin and hundreds of other digital assets.