Morningstar is proposing to launch a new Global Analyst  Ratings system later this year to replace its current global rating brand.

The new system was announced in June but since then some changes have been made to the scale.

Instead of the letter denominations AAA, AA and A, categories will now be known as Gold, Silver, Bronze, Neutral and Negative.

A spokesperson for Morningstar said that the decision to adopt the new naming scale was so that it “cannot be confused with credit ratings and that it is readily understood by investors worldwide.”

The scale will not replace the company’s star rating for mutual funds, which are based on historical performance.

Instead, the new scale is expected to be broader in scope, qualitative, more flexible and include Morningstar research into management at the fund company level.

The scale is expected to be launched in the fourth quarter of this year.

Funds rated by OBSR will switch to the new rating scale in the first half of 2012.

Morningstar was also the winner of an award at the Aberdeen UK Platform Awards last week.

The firm won Leading Independent Planning Tool for its Adviser Workstation tool which financial advisers voted as adding most value to support their proposition.

Geoff Balzano, chief executive of Morningstar, said: “Our adviser team puts great emphasis on building a superior adviser tool that brings together the best of what Morningstar and OBSR can deliver as one team; this award shows that advisers are seeing value in what we are building together.”

The Adviser Workstation tool is a web-based tool which allows advisers to analyse a client’s attitude to risk by importing data from multiple platforms.

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