In late 2009, Morningstar announced the launch of corporate credit ratings in US, initiating coverage on 100 firms. Since then, we've published ratings on nearly 700 firms across a variety of industries, including the July 2010 launch of our US bank credit ratings. We are now pleased to announce that we are adding global banks to this roster of companies, albeit with a few modifications to our U.S. bank rating methodology.
There are total 25 global banks for this new adding of corporate credit ratings. No global banks received an AAA, our highest rating, and there are 5 banks rated as A+, including world leading brands HSBC and Standard Chartered.