What do AAA, AA, A and BBB mean, and what is the Credit Risk-o-Meter?

A credit rating is an agency's opinion of how likely an issuer is to pay interest and principal on time. The agencies seen on Indian bond platforms include CRISIL, ICRA, CARE, India Ratings and Acuité (GoldenPi, Acuité). The scale runs AAA, AA, A, BBB, BB, B, C and D, where D is default. A plus or minus places a bond within its band, so A- is the bottom of the A band. BBB- and above is investment grade; BB+ and below is not.

What is the Credit Risk-o-Meter?

A colour meter that SEBI's circular of 7th Oct 2026 requires on every online bond platform's website, app and bond adverts, effective 45 days after issue, which is about 21st Nov 2026 (SEBI circular, SEBI circular page).

Rating band	Credit Risk-o-Meter level
AAA	Lowest
AA band	Very low
A band	Low
BBB band	Moderate credit risk
BB band	Moderate risk of default
B, C and D	High to very high risk of default

The circular adds 3 rules. Where a bond has more than 1 rating, the meter must use the lowest. An unsecured bond must be labelled "unsecured" in bold red. And Issuer Not Cooperating status, which means the issuer has stopped giving the agency information, must be shown.

Why does the lowest rating rule matter?

Because split ratings exist on bonds sold to retail investors today. On 1st Oct 2026 India Ratings cut Hella Infra Market's NCDs to IND B+/Negative, Issuer Not Cooperating (India Ratings), while Acuité kept its rating on the same paper at A- on Rating Watch with Developing implications (Acuité). On 17th Oct 2026 Groww, Aspero and BondScanner listed this paper at about 15% to 16% while showing only the A- (Groww, Aspero, BondScanner). Under the lowest rating rule the meter has to reflect the B+, which sits in the High to very high risk of default level. This is a dated example of how the rule works, not a view on the bond.

How fast can a rating change?

Within weeks. CARE cut TruCap Finance's NCDs from BBB- to BB+ on 4th Jun 2025, which triggered acceleration under the trust deed; the company missed the payment due on 16th Jul 2025 and CARE rated it D on 18th Jul 2025 (CARE, Catalyst Trusteeship). It repaid 6 ISINs in stages with penal interest by 23rd Sep 2025. On TradingQnA's thread about A and BBB rated bonds (10,371 views), replies point out that ratings trail events and can change in a day, citing IL&FS and DHFL (TradingQnA).

What do platforms claim about their shelves?

• GoldenPi states a range of AAA to BBB (GoldenPi).
• Aspero claims AA- to BBB on its about page, but its live listings on 17th Oct 2026 included 2 BB+ bonds (Aspero about, Aspero).
• Bonds Kart says AAA to A- on its about page and AA to AAA on its home page (Bonds Kart about, Bonds Kart).

Check each bond's own rating, agency and rationale date, which SEBI already requires platforms to show (SEBI NCS Master Circular).

What do people get wrong?

A rating is not a guarantee. It is an opinion that changes. Foreign default tables do not describe Indian BBB paper. A TradingQnA reply quoted a global 1 year default rate to argue BBB is fine; this site has not checked Indian rating agency default studies against it.