Category - Merritt Data

Merritt Research Services has developed strenuous quality control procedures throughout the data gathering, extraction, entry, review and grooming processes. We believe that the reputation of our data relies heavily on the quality control procedures that we employ in each step of the data process. ...Data Gathering Along with audit request letters, Merritt sends a survey requesting key industry accepted operating statistics. To ensure consistency, we include a set of definitions and the prior year's statistics to function as a guideline for the borrower to use when completing the survey...

Category: 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