Valentine Okafor
DataPro a leading Nigerian rating agency, has traced the origins of the global credit rating industry to the pioneering commercial credit reporting systems developed by Robert Graham Dun and John M. Bradstreet in the 19th century.
DataPro in a report titled “Pioneers in Credit Rating: The Story of Messrs Dun and Bradstreet,” said the foundations of modern credit assessment and rating systems were established long before the introduction of today’s widely recognised rating scales such as AAA and AA+.
According to the report, John M. Bradstreet, a Cincinnati-based lawyer in the United States, began organising credit information while managing estates, liquidating debts, and handling commercial transactions in the mid-1800s. Through the process, he reportedly built an extensive database on the financial credibility of merchants and businesses.
DataPro noted that Bradstreet later commercialised the initiative by establishing his own company and, in 1857, publishing what it described as the first commercial rating manual, offering structured credit information on businesses to subscribers across the country.
The report also highlighted the role of Robert Graham Dun, who transformed The Mercantile Agency into R.G. Dun & Company. Unlike Bradstreet’s publication-focused model, Dun reportedly built a broad network of correspondents that continuously gathered information on businesses’ financial standing, reputation, and payment behaviour.
According to DataPro, Dun’s model introduced a more structured and ongoing approach to commercial risk assessment, helping businesses rely on documented financial intelligence rather than informal trust-based transactions.
The agency explained that both firms remained competitors for decades, improving their methodologies and reporting systems, until the economic pressures of the Great Depression reshaped the industry.
In 1933, R.G. Dun & Company and The Bradstreet Company merged to form , combining Dun’s expansive information network with Bradstreet’s structured publishing framework.
DataPro said the merger represented a defining moment in the evolution of credit reporting and laid the groundwork for the modern global credit rating industry.
The report concluded that the history of credit ratings began not with rating symbols themselves, but with the systems created to provide reliable commercial intelligence, placing Dun and Bradstreet at the centre of the industry’s transformation.