KBRA Global Cumulative Default Rate Study: 2011-2025
KBRA’s historical default data provides a broad basis for assessing ratings performance across sectors, geographies, and market environments. In this report, we analyze KBRA cumulative default rates (KCDR) by rating category across 1-, 3-, 5-, and 10-year horizons, using data from 2011 through 2025.
The results were directionally consistent with the expected relationships among rating level, time horizon, and default risk. KCDRs generally increased as ratings moved down the rating scale and observation horizons lengthened. This pattern was evident in both the aggregate results and the corporate, financial, and government (CFG) and structured finance (SF) sector results. Higher-rated categories showed limited default incidence, while lower-rated categories generally showed higher cumulative default rates.
Additional detail on the study universe and methodology, cohort construction, and calculation approach is provided in the Appendix…
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