Letters from Germany ... Intermittently I receive letters from Germany, containing press clippings of articles expressing Germany’s dissonance with the new administration. I always try my best to...
If You Ask Me? Articles
S&P Global vs. Moody’s – Q3 2025 at a Glance.
Comparison of S&P Global and Moody's Q3 2025 Results Both franchises produced double-digit EPS growth with clean execution; SPGI adds a clearer private-markets growth vector and raised FY guide...
DueDil: The Mouse That Roared – Laid to Rest – Farewell to a Brand
DueDil’s Fourteen-Year journey from attempted disruption to absorption When DueDil burst onto the UK business-information scene in 2011, it promised nothing less than transparency for the opaque...
S&P Global’s 14× Bet on With Intelligence: Paying for Scarcity, Speed, and Standards
Congratulations to the owners of With Intelligence for realizing top value. True to the maxim “Data is not Information, and Information is not Knowledge,” the premium here prices the knowledge...
If You Ask Me: AI Supported Credit Information May Be Leading the Way to Become the Guardian of Credit Discipline
Here are my Takeaways from the Moody’s Q3 Earnings Call: The results speak for themselves: For the first time Moody’s has reached US$2bn in revenue per quarter; revenue growth: a commendable 11%...
Private Credit’s Reckoning – When the Lights Go Out
If you ask me [Joachim C Bartels] as the writer of this article and as a veteran in credit information, I am appalled by the apparent short memories within the credit system, the workings behind the...
The First Brands Group Collapse Update: Raistone Claims US$2.3bn ‘Simply Vanished’
"Dé·jà vu" ... here we go again ... shades of Enron, Wirecard etc. We wrote about this story a couple of days ago with the title: "Defaults Rattle the Private Credit Market" which may be signaling...
Credit Climate: The First Brands Group Collapse May Signal Private Credit Market Bust
We wrote about this story a couple of days ago with the title: "Defaults Rattle the Private Credit Market" which may be signaling the end of the private credit boom. The collapse of First Brands...
BNP Paribas Bets on Encompass: From Assumed Leader to Industry Standard
The announcement that BNP Paribas has led the latest funding round for Encompass Corporation is more than a financial milestone. It is a clear signal that Corporate Digital Identity (CDI) is no...








