Fitch Ratings-New York-01 May 2026: Fitch Ratings has updated its rating criteria for U.S. Public Finance Local Governments and replaced the previous criteria from April 2024.
Several changes are outlined below, but they do not materially alter Fitch’s approach to rating U.S. local governments. As such, Fitch does not expect rating changes to result directly from these criteria changes.
The most notable changes include:
–More flexibility to use proxies and other analytical inputs across all metrics;
–The addition of qualitative descriptors for population size and economic concentration outputs;
–A new appendix that described Fitch’s approach to Climate Vulnerability Signals for local governments;
–Removal of the dedicated tax sections of the criteria ahead of the standalone U.S. Public Finance Dedicated Tax and Revenue Bond criteria.