What does this rating system mean?

Question

I'm studying a bank and on their 10K, annual report, they mentioned they they received a AAA from Standard & Poor's Rating System as well as a Aaa from Moody's Investors. What does this mean? Do each of the As stand for a different aspect of banking?

Please go as deeply into this as you possibly can. Thanks.

Answer 1

go to S&P's and Moody's website for an explanation.  the ratings are supposed to be objective measures of a company's financial strength and credit worthiness.  just like when individuals apply for credit, a company often has to use credit and the interest rate it pays will depend on its rating.

Answer 2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_&_...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moody%27s#M...

Deep enough?