Shifting Market Shares in the European Credit Rating Industry

The European credit rating agency (CRA) market remains highly concentrated, butrecent data from the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) indicate subtle yet meaningful shifts in market shares that are reshaping competitive dynamics. The 2025 edition of ESMA’s CRA Market Share Report, based on audited 2024 revenues, provides a detailed snapshot of how dominance, consolidation, and regulatory pressure continue to interact in the EU rating landscape.

At the top of the market, the “Big Three” retain overwhelming control. S&P Global Ratings Europe strengthened its leading position, increasing its market share to 50.42 percent from 47.81 percent a year earlier. This gain came largely at the expense of Moody’s Investors Service, whose share declined from 30.59 percent to 29.63 percent. Fitch Ratings Ireland remained broadly stable but edged slightly lower to 11.82 percent, down from 11.86 percent. Collectively, these three agencies still account for more than 90 percent of the EU market, underlining the persistent structural concentration that European regulation has sought to address.

Below this top tier, the picture is more dynamic but also more fragmented. DBRS Ratings, the largest of the smaller agencies, continued to lose ground, falling to 1.99 percent from 2.17 percent. Scope Ratings also saw a notable decline, from 1.83 percent to 1.23 percent, reversing some of the gains it had made in earlier years. By contrast, a handful of niche players posted marginal improvements. CRIF Ratings and its affiliated entities increased their combined share to 0.80 percent, while Nordic Credit Rating recorded a small but symbolically important rise to 0.15 percent. These changes remain modest in absolute terms, yet they highlight the ongoing churn among agencies operating well below the 10 percent threshold defined in EU regulation.

The regulatory relevance of these shifts lies in Article 8d of the CRA Regulation, which requires issuers appointing multiple rating agencies to consider at least one CRA with less than 10 percent market share. ESMA’s annual publication of market share data is designed to make this obligation operational and to encourage the use of smaller agencies. However, the 2025 figures suggest that, while smaller CRAs continue to exist across all major rating categories, their aggregate market presence remains limited and, in many cases, continues to erode rather than expand.

Overall, the evolution of market shares in 2025 points less to a structural rebalancing and more to incremental adjustments within a highly concentrated system. While regulatory frameworks have succeeded in preserving diversity at the margin, they have not yet produced a sustained shift away from the dominance of the largest global agencies. For issuers, investors, and supervisors alike, the data underline a central tension of the European rating market: competition exists in form, but remains limited in economic weightl.