Among the key findings this year:

• In 2011, 53 global issuers defaulted, down from a record high of 265 in 2009 and 81 defaults in 2010.

• Overall, credit stability was more volatile in 2011, with an increase in both upgrades and downgrades relative to 2010.

• All but one of the 44 companies that began the year with active ratings in 2011 and subsequently defaulted, came from the speculative-grade universe.

Based on 31 years of data and updated annually, the Annual Default and Rating Transition Study tracks the incidence of default and rating changes for industrial, utilities, financial service institutions and insurance companies around the world. It uses transition matrices, Lorenz curves, and cumulative default statistics to examine the correlation between Standard & Poor's ratings and actual defaults.

http://www.standardandpoors.com/spf/ratings/DefaultStudy.pdf


2011 Annual Global Corporate Default and Ratings Transition Study

Standard & Poor's global corporate ratings in 2011 have remained in line with their strong historic record, and have continued to serve as effective indicators of default risk of rated credits worldwide on both relative and absolute bases.