Hi, Jason

And thank you for your insightful article! I always enjoy reading your posts!

Even though it is hardly an alternative to a credit rating agency per se, what would you say about another dimension to a credit rating to become trustworthy (which is why alternatives are being considered in the first place!), which I will present below.
I have noticed a growing debate over issuer-paid ratings (model currently used by the Big Three rating agencies and many others) VS the investor-paid model. The latter is claimed to eradicate the conflict of interest inherent in the rating and, hopefully, make the credit rating more trustworthy.