OREANDA-NEWS. National Rating Agency and Islamic International Rating Agency Sign A Memorandum Of Understanding. The purpose of the signed document is to enable the parties to jointly assign ratings to both individual Islamic financial products, including sovereign bonds, and Islamic financial institutions.

The Memorandum is a logical extension of NRA's Shariah Compliance Rating project, run since summer 2013, and a next step to develop Islamic finance infrastructure in Russia.

It is the first time in Russia's contemporary history when an agreement was made with an Arab World rating agency, a development clearly indicating Arab investors' interest in the Russian market and their confidence in the prospects of Islamic finance industry growth in this country.

To the Islamic International Rating Agency this Memorandum is a resolute step towards a long-term promotion of Islamic finance in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), and its choice of NRA as a partner is driven by a wish to collaborate with the CIS's most experienced and established rating company.

The Islamic International Rating Agency (IIRA) is the sole rating agency established to provide capital markets and the banking sector in predominantly Islamic countries with a rating spectrum that encompasses the full array of capital instruments and specialty Islamic financial products, and to enhance the level of analytical expertise in those markets. IIRA is soliciting recognition of its ratings by regulators and has received formal recognition from Central Bank of Bahrain as an External Credit Assessment Institution (ECAI).

IIRA is also on the list of approved rating agencies of Islamic Development Bank. IIRA started operations in July 2005 to facilitate development of the regional and national financial markets by delineating relative investment or credit risk, providing an assessment of the risk profile of entities and instruments. This should be an integral part of the decision process employed by institutional investors.