A credit rating is, at its simplest, an independent opinion on how likely an entity, whether a bank, a company or a government, is to pay back what it owes.
Libya has never had anyone able to give that opinion from the inside. International agencies such as S&P, Moody's, and Fitch have done almost no work on Libyan companies, banks or the government, and no Libyan institution has existed to fill the gap.
That absence has carried a real cost. Without independent analysis to point to, lenders have tended to assume the worst and charge more for it, a "frontier premium" that has little to do with whether a Libyan bank or company is actually able to pay its debts.
That gap is now being closed. SANAD Credit Rating Agency (SCRA) has become Libya's first licensed domestic credit rating agency, having received its licence from the Libyan Capital Markets Authority (LCMA) earlier this year under Decision No. 22 of 2026.
Its first tranche of ratings, covering all 27 of Libya's major banks, is out now. More are expected to follow, since banks are only one part of what SANAD is set up to rate.
More than a ratings agency
SANAD's licence allows it to do two things.
- The first is to assess an entity and assign it a rating, from the strongest grade down to the weakest.
- The second is broader: gather and publish research and market data that investors can use on their own, rather than relying purely on a rating.
Around both sit advisory services, helping companies prepare for a rating, and training, building up local staff who can do this kind of analysis themselves.
