Fitch Group is creating a new division to hold its non-ratings businesses, in an effort to shore up the independence of its ratings.

The parent company of Fitch Ratings and Algorithmics has created a new division, Fitch Solutions, that will consolidate all non-rating products and services, product development, credit training, and the firm’s product sales force into a single entity.

The firm says that the creation of this new division reinforces and furthers the independence of the ratings and analytics of Fitch Ratings and creates an entity with a singular focus on the development of fixed income products and services.

“While we always have had strong convictions in our current practices and policies to protect the independence and integrity of our ratings, we believe it is clearer to have even greater separation of our analytical activities from our commercial activities,” said Stephen Joynt, chief executive officer, Fitch Group. “Moreover, this structure creates a more comprehensive and focused content and distribution platform for our market offerings.”

While current Fitch Ratings content will form the core of the initial offerings of Fitch Solutions, the division will also be charged with bringing to market a wide range of data, analytics and related services. Fitch Solutions will also incorporate the teams supporting established products such Fitch Research, the Fitch CDS Pricing Service, Market Implied Ratings, and the Risk Analytics Platform for Credit Derivatives. Fitch Solutions will also house the organizations’ global sales group; and Fitch Training, the company’s credit training division for global financial institutions.

Additionally, the provision of global structured credit ratings as issued by Fitch subsidiary Derivative Fitch will be folded back into Fitch Ratings. “While the needs for market risk analysis which led to the creation of Derivative Fitch remain, we believe we can best meet the demands for complementary products and services via Fitch Solutions, while consistently providing structured credit ratings directly under the Fitch Ratings umbrella. We remain committed to enhancing the understanding of risk and improving transparency in the structured credit markets,” said Joynt.