Bank of America Credit Rating - DOC

							                               Rater Questionnaire



1. Contact Information

Name of Rating Agency: CRISIL Limited
Number of Employees: 1956 (As of December 31, 2008)
Full Email Address: CRISIL HOUSE, 121/122 Andheri-Kurla Road, Andheri, Mumbai 400093.
India.


Website: www.crisil.com
Name of Contact Person: Mr. Ramraj Pai, Director - SME Ratings
E-mail: rpai@crisil.com
Phone: +91-22-66913036(Direct), +-91-22-66913001(Board)
Fax : +91-22-66913030(Direct), +91-22-66913000 (Board)


2. Legal Profile

2.1 Primary Business of the organization          Credit Rating
                                                  Microfinance Rating
                                                  Social Rating
                                                  Other (please specify) CRISIL also offers Bank
Loan Ratings, SME Ratings, Governance and Value Creation (GVC) Ratings, Real Estate
Developers and Project Ratings and Mutual Fund Ratings

2.2 Profit Orientation:    For Profit            Non Profit


3. Institutional Details

3.1 Rating/Assessment Clients
                             MFI NGO
                             MFI Credit Unions
                             MFI NBFI


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                                   MFI Cooperatives
                                   Corporate Sector entities
                                   Government institutions

3.2 Number of ratings/assessments completed by your institution in the last 12 months1 MFI Grading: 69
    (CY 2008). Credit Rating, Bank Loan Rating, SME Rating: 1500 + entites (CY 2008)

3.3 Total number of microfinance ratings done by your institution since inception            237

3.4 Number of Ratings completed with The Rating Fund and/or The Rating Initiative            24


3.5 Geographic Coverage of MFI Ratings/Assessments Completed:

                            SS Africa                 Latin America and the Caribbean
                            MENA                      Asia
                            EECA

3.6 Other areas willing to do MFI Ratings/Assessments in:

                            SS Africa                 Latin America and the Caribbean
                            MENA                      Asia
                            EECA

3.7 Office Locations:
                            SS Africa                 Latin America and the Caribbean
                            MENA                      Asia
                            EECA

3.8 Staff:                  Number of full time rating/assessment staff         150+
                            Number of associate rating/assessment staff




1
    Includes ratings done with the CGAP/IDB Rating Fund, The Rating Initiative and others.


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4   Product Details (please be sure to complete relevant columns)

                                 Credit Rating        Microfinance Rating          Social Rating
Product Type                  CRISIL provides          CRISIL offers risk              N.A
                                rating and risk       assessments (with or
                             assessment services      without grading) and
                              to Manufacturing         diagnostic services.
                             Companies, Banks,
                                 Non-Banking
                                   Financial
                                 Companies,
                                   Financial
                            Institutions, Housing
                             Finance Companies,
                              Municipal Bodies,
                            and companies in the
                            infrastructure sector.
Standard Clients                                      Clients include MFI               N.A
                                                      NGOs and projects,
                                                     Credit Unions and Co-
                                                     operatives, Banks and
                                                      Non-Bank Financial
                                                     Institutions, Non Bank
                                                        Corporate Sector
                                                       Entities and Public
                                                         Sector Entities.
MFI                                  Yes                       Yes                      N.A
Donors                               Yes                       Yes                      N.A
Regulators                           Yes                        No                      N.A
Lenders/Creditors                    Yes                       Yes                      N.A
Investors                            Yes                       Yes                      N.A

5   Methodology

5.1 Please select the specific areas that your methodology assesses/rates and the relative importance of
    each (1 = high, 3 = low)




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Management                1 Capital Adequacy               2   Outreach & Impact    2
Financial Performance     2       Institutional Analysis       2             Business Plan      2
Asset Quality             2       Strategic Objectives         2             Governance         2
Earnings                  2       Operational Effectiveness    2             Financial Forecasts2
Liquidity Management      2       Assets & Liability management3             Others (please specify)
Profitability             2       Funding needs                2             -
Financial Risk Analysis   1       Scalability & Sustainability 2             -
Liability Structure       2       Services                     1             -
Loan Portfolio            1       Clientele                    1
Savings Activity          3       Market trend and competition 2
Credit Methodology        1 Management Information System 1


5.2. Rating Scale                        Alphabetical             Numerical
                                         Alpha-Numeric            Not Applicable

5.3. Nature of Over-all Analysis Quantitative       45%   Qualitative   55 %
(Expressed in percentage)

5.4. Please provide an index of your rating scale
CRISIL has devised a separate eight-point risk continuum for grading microfinance institutions.
The microfinance institution (MFI) grading is a current opinion on the ability of an MFI to conduct
its operations in a scalable and sustainable manner. The grading is assigned on an eight-point scale,
with ‘mfR1’ being the highest, and ‘mfR8’ the lowest. The MFI grading is a measure of the overall
performance of an MFI on a broad range of parameters under CRISIL’s MICROS framework.

5.5. Additional Methodology Features (500 words max)

Based on CRISIL's insights and understanding of the financial sector, it has develped its
methodology for evaluating microfinance institutions under the 'MICROS' framework. The
MICROS metholodogy encompasses six parameters:
1. Management Analysis: CRISIL's management analysis focuses on evaluating the practices and
systems of the MFI vis-à-vis the best practices among financial intermediaries. It is imperative for
MFIs to have formalised processes for identification of client segments, loan disbursals, and
monitoring of loan accounts and collections. Formalised processes and systems are key to
achieving a sustainable and scalable business model.
2. Institutional arrangement: CRISIL assesses institutional arrangement by examining the quality,
track record, and inter-realtionships between the MFI's management, promoters and board. It also
evaluates the articulated vision of the management/ board to the stakeholders.
3. Capital Adequacy and asset quality: CRISIL's capital adequacy analysis encompasses the size of
capital, quality of capital and capital position with respect to domestic capital requirements. The


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assessment also comments on the adequacy of risk capital to support future portfolio
growth.CRISIL evaluates asset quality by assessing the MFI's ability to manage credit risks. Under
this parameter CRISIL analyses the asset quality of the loan portfolio and also determines whether
the provisions are adequate to support losses and write-offs.
4. Resources and Asset Liability Management: CRISIL analyses the resource position of MFIs on
the basis of their ability to maintain a stable resource base and obtain borrowings at competitive
rates. CRISIL's analysis factors in the legal status of the MFI (which imposes restrictions on the
acceptance of savings/deposits) and the regulatory environment in the country in which the MFI
operates.
5. Operational effectiveness: In measuring operational effectiveness, the key considerations are
operational efficiency and profitability.CRISIL performs appropriate analytical adjustments, which
are in line with practices adopted worldwide in evaluating MFIs.
6. Scalability and Sustainability: An MFI has to create a sustainable and scalable business model
and demonstrate institutional resilience. The analysis looks at the extent to which the business
model could be scaled while maintaining operational effectiveness.


Name & designation of contact person for this application:
Mr. Ramraj Pai, Director - SME Ratings


                                   THANK YOU!




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