Abstract
So far rather weak tendencies towards an infrastructure for external ratings by independent agencies have been observed in Europe in recent decades. Especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), thus far there has been no possibility of obtaining an objective rating. The reason is that information is very asymmetric between investors and capital demands on small and medium-sized companies. But due to the new capital accord by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision the situation will change. Our paper shows that having Basel II in mind there is need for rating also medium-sized companies. We will also give an overview of characteristics that have to be incorporated in such ratings and further describe models, products and companies in this sector. Especially so-called soft computing methods like Fuzzy Logic or Neural Networks are very promising approaches in the field of rating SMEs.