Preface 1. Introduction to the World of Credit Rating 2. Credit Rating Agencies Who they are and What they do? 3. The Big 3, the Global Credit Market Gatekeepers 4. Credit Rating Agencies' Methodologies, Metrics and Rating Accuracy 5. Ordinal Credit Ratings: The threat to rating accuracy 6. Credit Ratings Critics, Telling it like it is 7. Credit Rating Agencies External Monitoring 8. Credit Rating Agencies Internal Monitoring 9. Agencies Rating Quality Control Systems 10. The Chall 6, Shall they Present Serious Challenge to Big 3? 11. Critical perspective and concluding remarks