Editorial Review of
eStandards Forum

Though it sounds like a cross between a dot-com and a think tank, eStandards Forum is actually -- loosely speaking -- an emerging market risk rating. The eStandards mission statement is to improve the soundness of financial systems in countries worldwide, by setting out the "best practices" in areas like bankruptcy law, corporate governance, and data dissemination.

But the Forum also does a healthy business as a country risk indicator for mutual funds and pension funds. These portfolio players face country risk too -- during the Russian debt default, the Russian stock market and currency tanked, burning US investors who had bought Russian stocks. eStandards Forum provides a way for fund managers to decide which markets are too risky for them to play in. eStandards doesn't rate forward looking indicators like "political risk," it rates objective, usually market-based, factors like accounting standards and banking supervision. Which is all to the good: when countries improve these factors, they are likely to be rewarded with a flood of pension fund cash.

http://www.estandardsforum.com/