<p>Credit rating systems are complex processes and involve mainly two parties; a company and a bank. The complexity of a relationship between a company and a bank lies in the fact that a company usually has access to more information about the company than the bank. Hence, an auditor acts as a third party who validates the information involved in credit rating processes. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore how auditing is being used in credit rating processes and to identify the role auditing has. In addition, this study recognizes the use of auditing in both Denmark and Sweden, with a goal to compare and explore the differences between the countries.</p><p>In order to collect secondary data, Danish and Swedish banks were interviewed. To be able to explore the rather newly discovered relationship between auditing and credit rating processes, this study was carried out with an exploratory research design. In addition, this study is based on assumptions stated in the Agency Theory, the Positive Accounting Theory and the Stakeholder Model. Because the intention was to use existing theories, a deductive research approach was suitable.</p><p>The empirical findings imply that auditing is being used in banks’ credit rating processes to validate the information and to reduce the risk. The trustworthiness of auditors and the relationship between a company and a bank influence banks’ perceptions regarding the creditworthiness of companies. The role of auditing is rather common in Denmark and Sweden, whereas the amount of accessible information is higher in Sweden than in Denmark. The pattern is that more information diminishes the risk and implies that the role of auditing is less important.</p><p>This study is limited to only taking the bank’s perceptions of auditing into consideration, leaving out other stakeholders. Moreover, the examination is restricted to Danish and Swedish banks. The findings are interesting for banks and small companies to consider, because they explain the importance of auditing other components such as customer relationship. As a conclusion, the findings would be appropriate for Swedish banks to review in order to evaluate possible consequences of the statutory audit.</p>

Credit rating systems are complex processes and involve mainly two parties; a company and a bank. The complexity of a relationship between a company and a bank lies in the fact that a company usually has access to more information about the company than the bank. Hence, an auditor acts as a third party who validates the information involved in credit rating processes. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore how auditing is being used in credit rating processes and to identify the role auditing has. In addition, this study recognizes the use of auditing in both Denmark and Sweden, with a goal to compare and explore the differences between the countries. In order to collect secondary data, Danish and Swedish banks were interviewed. To be able to explore the rather newly discovered relationship between auditing and credit rating processes, this study was carried out with an exploratory research design. In addition, this study is based on assumptions stated in the Agency Theory, the Positive Accounting Theory and the Stakeholder Model. Because the intention was to use existing theories, a deductive research approach was suitable. The empirical findings imply that auditing is being used in banks’ credit rating processes to validate the information and to reduce the risk. The trustworthiness of auditors and the relationship between a company and a bank influence banks’ perceptions regarding the creditworthiness of companies. The role of auditing is rather common in Denmark and Sweden, whereas the amount of accessible information is higher in Sweden than in Denmark. The pattern is that more information diminishes the risk and implies that the role of auditing is less important. This study is limited to only taking the bank’s perceptions of auditing into consideration, leaving out other stakeholders. Moreover, the examination is restricted to Danish and Swedish banks. The findings are interesting for banks and small companies to consider, because they explain the importance of auditing other components such as customer relationship. As a conclusion, the findings would be appropriate for Swedish banks to review in order to evaluate possible consequences of the statutory audit.

Kreditvärderingsinstitut arbetar med att göra analyser och bedömningar om vad bolag har för kreditvärdighet genom att tilldela ett kreditbetyg. Bolagen kan välja vilket kreditbetyg de vill publicera till allmänheten. Kreditbetygen används som ett verktyg på obligationsmarknaden för att prissätta dessa, och har därför betydelse för fastighetsbolagens kreditvärdighet. Obligationsmarknaden är en viktig finansieringskälla för större fastighetsbolag. Syftet med detta arbete är att ge läsaren en övergripande bild av de dominerande kreditvärderingsinstituten på den svenska fastighetsmarknaden och eventuella likheter, skillnader och potentiella svagheter. Detta för att identifiera eventuella påföljder som de dominerande kreditvärderingsinstituten kan medföra. Arbetet utgår från både kvalitativ och kvantitativ metod. Den kvalitativa metoden består av ett teoretiskt ramverk som innehåller institutens betygsskalor, kreditvärderingsprocess, policys och disclaimer. Kvantitativa metoden innefattar mejlintervjuer, som skickats ut till 30 svenska fastighetsbolag med publika kreditbetyg. Resultaten visar att det finns likheter, skillnader och svagheter mellan de olika kreditvärderingsinstituten. Trots dominerande likheter hos instituten visade resultatet från mejlintervjuerna en skillnad på fyra betygssteg i snitt-kreditbetyg hos fastighetsföretagen och skillnader i kreditbetyg till Danske Bank. Likheterna och skillnaderna kan leda till svagheter som att fastighetsbolag betalar mycket pengar för ett eller flera kreditbetyg som instituten inte tar ansvar över, och som investerare eventuellt fattar investeringsbeslut baserat på. / Credit rating agencies work to make analyzers and assessments of what companies' creditworthiness is by assigning a credit rating. Companies can choose which credit ratings they want to publish to the public. The credit ratings are used as a tool for obligations to price these and are important for the real estate companies' creditworthiness. Liabilities market is an important source of financing for major real estate companies.   The purpose of this Bachelor Thesis is to give the reader an overall picture of the dominant credit rating agency in the Swedish real estate market and point out any similarities, differences and potential weaknesses. This is to identify any penalties that the dominant credit rating agencies may incur. This work is based on both qualitative and quantitative methods. The qualitative method consists of a theoretical framework that contains the institutions' grading scales, credit rating process, policies and disclaimer. The quantitative method includes email interviews, which have been sent out to 30 Swedish real estate companies with public credit ratings.  Results show that there are similarities, differences and weaknesses between the different credit rating agencies. The dominant similarities between the institutions showed the results from the email interviews and the difference between four rating steps in the average credit rating of the real estate companies and differences in credit ratings to Danske Bank. The similarities and differences can lead to weaknesses such as real estate companies paying a lot of money for one or more credit ratings, which the institutions do not take responsibility for, and on which investors may make investment decisions based on.