Category - CreditScope

Merritt Research Services strives to paint the most accurate picture of a Credit's financial condition based on information provided in audited financial statements and notes contained therein. Because the dollar amount of Cash & Short Term Investments is used to calculate several salient liquidity ratios in the CreditScope database, it is particularly important to note that only unrestricted and highly liquid cash and short-term investments are included in this field. Merritt typically does not include any cash reserved for collateral, held by fiscal agents, or trustee-held restricted...

Category: CreditScope, Merritt Data

Merritt Research Services provides tax base data for credits within the City, County, and School District sectors. Tax base data is found in the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) in the Statistical Section, which typically provides an abundance of information relating to economics and demographics. When entities do not provide tax base data in their CAFR, Merritt will utilize public documents from other sources, including Official Statements and Continuing Disclosure Documents which may be obtained through Electronic Municipal Market Access (EMMA). Tax base data provides an...

Category: CreditScope, Merritt Data

Merritt Research Services aggregates salient credit information by locating, obtaining, providing, and following an audit or fund contained in a Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) that best represents the source of payment for currently outstanding municipal bonds. Those efforts have established a universe of Credits (often referred to as obligors) in the Merritt data set. Merritt takes great care in establishing the association ("link") between an Issue or group of Issues associated with a given Credit. Generally, specific bond issues are linked based on the revenues...

Category: CreditScope

The Merritt dataset for the School District sector includes two similar, yet distinctive statistics: Total Public School Enrollment and Average Daily Attendance. Their respective values are often close in proximity but their meanings are quite different. Total Public School Enrollment is a literal headcount determined by counting the number of students enrolled in a given school year. Typically, this statistic is gathered in October of each year. Average Daily Attendance is calculated by summing the attendance count for each day of the school year and dividing it by the total number of...

Category: CreditScope, Merritt Data

Merritt Research Services aims to provide the most comprehensive collection of data possible. In some instances, however, adequate disclosure has not been provided by the Credit. In those cases, certain data fields will be left blank. Blank data fields are not to be confused with zeros, which indicate a zero balance or value. In addition to insufficient disclosure, fields might also be left blank when data for a particular field is not broken out in enough detail for us to populate the respective field accurately. This situation might arise if a line item on a financial statement is combined...

Category: CreditScope, Merritt Data

Merritt utilizes the Name field in CreditScope to identify the most recent audited financial statements that have been standardized into the Credit. Over the years, audit presentations have changed to accommodate entities with a corporate-type structure. For example, a Hospital credit may include affiliates, subsidiaries or related corporations. Naming the Credit to reflect the structure being standardized allows the user to quickly identify the audit presentation that Merritt used to standardize the most recent data provided. How is a Name Change Treated? Clients occasionally inquire...

Category: CreditScope, Merritt Data

The Merritt Credit Universe available to CreditScope Municipal Edition subscribers is currently comprised of 6,300 Merritt Standard Credits and 53,600 Merritt Supplemental Credits. While the Merritt Supplemental Credits do not represent the whole nature of the deliverable credit data set associated with Merritt Standard Credits, they do offer a wealth of valuable information and opportunity. The breadth of our current 6,300 Merritt Standard Credits represents 69% of the current market value of a major municipal bond market index. The combined 59,900-credit Merritt Credit Universe...

Category: CreditScope, Merritt Data

For over 25 years, Merritt Research Services has been providing quality municipal data. In the early years, most of that data was related to credits issuing revenue-backed bonds such as hospitals, electric utilities or airports. Over time, we have expanded the standard product universe to include other sectors including those whose debt is tied to tax-backed repayment. During 2011, in addition to the natural growth in the coverage of our existing sectors, we released over 1,100 Water/Sewer credits into the standard data universe. In January 2012, we introduced an additional 290 standard...

Category: CreditScope, Merritt Data

A clear definition of what constitutes a credit is a fundamental building block in selecting entities for inclusion in the Merritt Research Services dataset. By design, Merritt data is assembled in a way that facilitates the evaluation of those entities responsible for the repayment of bonded indebtedness. We further narrow the focus to entities that are eligible via the tax code to issue bonds whose interest is free from federal taxation. The entities responsible for paying the debt service on these bonds are defined as "credits." Keeping the needs of our users in mind, Merritt...

Category: CreditScope, Merritt Data