Fitch, the rating agency, has attacked the status quo in the rating agency universe by claiming widespread acceptance of its ratings among European institutional investors.

Fitch has long been considered the poor cousin of Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's, the US-based rating agencies that are considered to be the benchmark rating entities in the credit markets. Now Fitch has fought back by conducting its own survey of 80 European asset managers (some third party) and institutional investors.