Does the company have a current credit rating?

Credit rating belongs to client due diligence, not to sustainability

This question typically comes from a bank or credit insurer list, not from a sustainability questionnaire. The requesting party wants to know whether there is an external, current assessment of creditworthiness — from a rating agency (Moody's, S&P, Fitch) or from a credit information report (Graydon, Creditsafe, D&B). "Current" typically means: not older than twelve months, although the exact threshold depends on the portal.

If the undertaking has no external rating — which is the case for the vast majority of SMEs — then the answer is actually "no", not "unknown". Having a rating drawn up solely to answer this question is usually disproportionate; many portals therefore accept as an alternative a recent credit information report, or refer through to indicators that are available, such as the average payment term to suppliers or filed annual accounts as an indirect source of financial solidity. That is a choice for the client, not an automatic process.

Why banks and insurers ask this: client due diligence

The basis for this question does not lie in a sustainability or cyber framework, but in the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Act (Wwft). Institutions falling under the Wwft — banks, insurers, credit providers — must conduct client due diligence on the business relationships they enter into. A credit assessment is one of the possible building blocks for substantiating a client's risk profile, alongside for example the source of funds and the banking relationships of the undertaking. The Wwft itself does not prescribe a rating; the question comes from the risk policy of the individual bank or insurer, built on that due diligence obligation.