Upcoming changes to partner risk rating

[Noah Balmer]

As part our continuing efforts to provide useful data about our partners, we are working on some improvements to our risk ratings.  While the details of implementation are not yet set in stone, I thought it best to let you know that changes are on the way, and give you an opportunity to give us feedback. 

On the kiva site, the five-star scale for displaying risk rating will be modified to allow half-stars.  Also, partners with different business models that don't fit our risk-assessment model may be shown as "Not Rated".

In the API, we currently provide a number for risk rating.  Starting on or near September 6th, you can expect to see this field change.  The current plan is to show the string "non-rated" for the partners that have no risk rating.  There will also be a new field, tentatively named "due_diligence_type", that indicates whether the partner is a traditional MFI to which we can apply our risk assessment model, or some other type of entity for which the model does not make sense.

If you're supporting an application that uses our API, you may want to check and make sure the application does not assume a risk rating number will always be present.  

Thanks!

-Noah