A credit rating is a score which reflects the opinion of a credit rating agency or a credit reference agency about the credit worthiness of an individual, a corporation, a financial obligation or even a country. The rating is intended to provide the market with an evaluation of a potential borrower's ability to service and repay its obligations in the future. The rating is prepared either by a rating agency typically on a solicited basis, i.e. at the request of the lender and/or debt issuer, or by a reference agency on an unsolicited basis, i.e. without consultation using publicly available information.