Disclosures.
SYNE Ratings' regulatory disclosures - how we manage independence and conflicts of interest, how we're paid, how our methodology and rating performance are made public, and how to raise a complaint.
Eleven sections, start to finish.
Purpose of This Page
02Regulatory Status & Registrations
03Independence & Conflicts of Interest
04Fee Structure
05Analyst Rotation & Compensation
06Methodology Disclosure
07Rating Performance & Stability
08Ownership & Corporate Structure
09Ancillary Services
10Complaints & Appeals
11Regulatory Contact
Why this page exists.
As an independent ratings provider, SYNE Ratings is expected to disclose the safeguards that keep our ratings free from undue influence, alongside how we operate as a business. This page consolidates those disclosures in one place, in addition to the governance sections published within each individual methodology document.
How SYNE is regulated.
SYNE Ratings operates under the following regulatory frameworks and voluntary codes of conduct. See the Regulatory Tracker for the current status of each.
- EU ESG Ratings Regulation (ESMA 2023/2631)
- UK FCA Code of Conduct for ESG Ratings and Data Products Providers
- India SEBI ESG Rating Providers Regulations
- Singapore MAS Code of Conduct for ESG Rating and Data Product Providers
- Japan FSA Code of Conduct for ESG Evaluation and Data Providers
- IOSCO Recommendations for ESG Ratings and Data Products Providers
How we keep a rating free from influence.
SYNE maintains a Conflicts of Interest Policy designed to identify, prevent, and manage conflicts that could compromise the independence or objectivity of a rating. Key safeguards include:
- Analysts and Rating Committee members hold no financial interest in the entities they rate
- Fees are agreed before an engagement begins and have no bearing on the rating outcome
- Every rating is signed off by an independent Rating Committee, separate from the analyst who scored it
- Staff must disclose any personal, family, or prior employment relationship with a rated entity, and are recused from that engagement where a conflict is identified
- Ancillary services - such as Advisory and Consulting - are firewalled from the rating decision, as described in Section 9
How SYNE is paid.
SYNE operates primarily on an issuer-pays and subscriber-pays model, depending on the product. Rated entities that commission a rating pay a fee for the engagement; investors, lenders and other users may separately subscribe to access ratings, data, or benchmark products. Fees are based on the scope and complexity of an engagement - such as the number of entities in a supplier panel, or the licence tier for a dataset - and are fixed before an engagement begins, independent of the rating outcome.
How analysts are managed.
Lead analysts are periodically rotated off long-running engagements to guard against familiarity risk. Analyst compensation is not linked to the ratings they assign, the fees generated by their engagements, or the commercial outcome of any rating decision, and is reviewed by a function independent of the ratings business.
Every methodology, published in full.
Unlike a proprietary scoring model, every SYNE methodology is published in full - criteria, weighting, data quality thresholds, governance, and version history - and is publicly accessible without a login. See the Methodology Overview for the complete set of documents, including prior versions on request.
How stable a SYNE Rating is over time.
Illustrative statistics from the most recent annual review cycle, published for transparency. See the relevant methodology document for how review cycles and triggers are defined.
These figures are illustrative, intended to show the type of stability statistics a ratings provider discloses. They should not be relied upon as a guarantee of any individual rating's future stability - see Section 3 of our Terms of Use.
Who owns SYNE Ratings.
SYNE Ratings is privately held and operates through six group entities:
Details of significant ownership interests that could present a conflict of interest with a specific rated entity are maintained internally and made available to regulators and, where legally required, to the relevant rated entity, upon request.
How advisory work is kept separate from ratings.
SYNE offers ancillary services alongside its ratings business, including Advisory and Consulting, Benchmarking and Research, and Independent Assurance. Where a client engages SYNE for an ancillary service and is separately rated by SYNE, the two engagements are run by different teams, and the ancillary service has no influence over the rating outcome. This firewall is documented in the Governance section of each relevant methodology.
How to raise a concern.
A rated entity may request a factual accuracy review of a draft rating within the window specified in the relevant methodology - this is strictly for correcting factual errors, not negotiating a score. Outside that window, or for a concern about methodology, process, or conduct, complaints can be submitted using the details in Section 11 and will be acknowledged within 5 business days.
How to reach us about a regulatory matter.
For regulatory enquiries, complaints, or requests relating to any disclosure on this page, contact our compliance team at compliance@syneratings.com, or use the general Contact Us form and note that your enquiry is regulatory in nature.
Want the full picture?
See our Methodology Overview for governance detail, or the Regulatory Tracker for the regulations behind these disclosures.