...Fitch Ratings (Fitch) announced the first\01ever ratings by a rating agency of all Japanese credit associations (shinkins) on 5 January 2004. In the four years since they were first introduced, the ratings assigned to individual shinkins have been monitored and reviewed. The creditworthiness of each shinkin is assessed according to Fitch s Shinkin Financial Strength (SFS) rating methodology (See Rating Japanese Credit Associations ( Shinkin ) dated 24 May 2007 and Shinkin Financial Strength Ratings: Introducing More Detail into the Rating Scale dated 14 February 2005, available at www.fitchresearch.com), and ratings are assigned on the five\01notch SFS rating scale. In descending order, the SFS rating scale is as follows: ...
