Category - CreditScope

As we reported in late July, we have been busy making necessary database modifications in an effort to implement the GASB 67/68 reporting standards into our data set.  Initially, we provided pension-related data fields to accommodate both Single/Multi-Employer Agent plans and the Multi-Employer Cost Sharing plans for the City, County and School District sectors.  Since then, we have been working diligently to propagate related content into those data fields. We are now pleased to be updating the State sector software to include pension-related data fields that mirror the new City...

Category: CreditScope, Merritt Data

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) in 2012 released new accounting standards for public pension plans and participating employers. These standards, GASB Statements No. 67 and 68, have substantially revised the accounting requirements previously mandated under GASB Statements No. 25 and 27.  With GASB 67 effective for plan fiscal years ending after June 15, 2014, and GASB 68 effective for employer fiscal years ending after June 15, 2015, we began to see governments reporting under the new standards with their FY2015 audits.     Given that we have now seen...

Category: CreditScope, Merritt Data

CreditScope users who have completed a system update should be able to view a selection of Metro and State FBI crime statistics for all general obligation and revenue bond credits covered by Merritt Research. National, Region, Region Division, and State FBI data is available for all credits in CreditScope. Metro FBI data will be available for credits where the feature ID links to a medium-sized to larger metro area. To find crime data: Click on the Demographics button on the Credit Detail Screen.

Category: CreditScope, Demographics, Merritt Data

Merritt has added a new demographic field to the database, the Gini Index. The Gini Index is a measure of inequality in the distribution of household income that was developed by Italian statistician Corrado Gini. According to the American Community Survey and Puerto Rico Community Survey 2012 Subject Definitions, "The Gini ranges from zero (perfect equality) to one (perfect inequality), and it is calculated by measuring the difference between a diagonal line (the purely proportionate distribution) and the distribution of actual values (a Lorenz curve)." Therefore, an index of zero would...

Category: CreditScope, Demographics, Merritt Data

Demographic data within CreditScope is obtained from three federal governmental agencies: the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) and the U.S. Census Bureau. With the release of new updates almost weekly, Merritt is continuously updating demographic data so that it is as up-to-date as possible. In some cases, updates can take longer to implement, which leads to the question: "How soon do demographic releases get applied to Credit Scope?" The most frequent updates come from the BLS. These updates are generally released on a weekly basis,...

Category: CreditScope, Demographics, Merritt Data

Clients often ask about the type of credits included in the "Standard Credit Universe." For a detailed explanation, open your CreditScope program. On the Task Bar located on the left side of your screen, highlight "CreditScope." Below that, select the first heading that is bolded with a small triangle pointed to the right. A list of sectors will be displayed. The sector names notated with an asterisk are considered current Merritt Sectors and thus contain the credits included in the Standard Credit Universe. Credits which fall within Sectors not notated by an asterisk can often be made...

Category: CreditScope, Merritt Data

Merritt Research Services recently added the following fields to CreditScope for Pension Data and will be providing data on these fields respectively: Total Percent Contributed of ARC for all pension plans in the City, County, School District, Special District and State sectors. Total Participants in each Pension Plan with the following breakout: Employee Participants, Retiree & Beneficiary Participants and Terminated Employee Participants, along with the ratio "% Retiree Participants". The Participants will be provided for single employer pension plans in the City, County, School...

Category: CreditScope, Merritt Data

Merritt Research Services recently enhanced the "Taxpayers" data available in CreditScope. We now have the ability to provide data for more than one year for the Top Ten Taxpayers. The user has the option to view the Top Ten Taxpayers by clicking on Taxpayers to see data for all years of Top Ten Taxpayers or clicking on the hyperlink "Most Recent Taxpayer Summary" which will only show data for the most recent year. The Top Ten Taxpayers data will be stored under "Taxpayer" in the Credit Detail Screen. With this revision, Merritt will begin to provide historical data for Taxpayers in the...

Category: CreditScope, Merritt Data

Merritt Research Services recently added the Community College sector to CreditScope. This enhancement includes financial data for over 200 standard credits in the Community College sector. These credits had been included in the Public Higher Ed sector prior to this change. If you are not seeing this information in CreditScope, please check the date of your most recent software system update by clicking on the [Help] button on the top menu bar of your screen. Then, click on [About CreditScope]. In the resulting pop-up box, check the line that reads: "Invest.exe date." In order to see this...

Category: CreditScope, Merritt Data

Merritt Research Services has added more demographic data to CreditScope from the U.S. Census Bureau. The demographic data added under the Census Bureau includes Births & Deaths, Migration, and Birthplace Data. The Births & Deaths section includes the number of births and deaths for a specific year, along with the natural increase which is derived from subtracting deaths from births. Migration Data includes the total net migration in or out of the specific geography and is further broken down into international and domestic migration for a specific geography. Birthplace Data...

Category: CreditScope, Demographics, Merritt Data