securities, particularly mortgage-backed securities (MBSs) and collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) rated highly by the credit ratings agencies, and thus heavily invested in by many organizations and individuals, were rapidly and vastly devalued due to defaults, and fear of defaults, on some of the individual components of those securities, such as home loans and credit card accounts. Other countries are beginning to mull the creation of domestic credit ratings agencies to challenge the dominance of the "Big Three", for example in Russia, where the ACRA was founded in 2016. Municipal bonds Municipal bonds are instruments issued by local, state, or federal governments in the United States. Until April–May 2010, Moody's and Fitch were rating municipal bonds on the separate naming/classification system which mirrored the tiers for corporate bonds. S&P abolished its dual rating system in 2000. Default rates The historical default rate for municipal bonds is lower than that of corporate bonds. A potential misuse of historic default statistics is to assume that historical average default rates represent the "probability of default" of debt in a particular rating category. However, [...] default rates can vary significantly from one year to the next and the observed rate for any given year can vary significantly from the average. AAA Rating AAA is the highest credit rating that any of the major credit rating agencies can give to an issuer's bonds. AAA Rated Bonds AAA-rated bonds have a high credit rating because their issuers are able to meet their financial obligations with ease and have the lowest risk of default. See also Credit risk Default (finance) List of countries by credit rating References External links "What Is A Corporate Credit Rating?", Investopedia.com Investment Grade Real Estate | How To Purchase Property With Credit Rated Tenants "As company priorities shift, fewer get AAA debt rating," USA Today (Mar 2005) "Fitch says confident in 'AAA' subprime ratings", Reuters (Jul 2007) Bond market Investment Credit rating Credit risk Bond valuation de:Rating#Ratingcodes