This article approaches the necessity of designing internal models of rating, in order to evaluate and manage credit risk. The authors address in equal measure the credit institutions, the Romanian legal entities, the Romanian branches of the credit institutions from third-party states, their potential customers, whether individual persons or legal entities, as well as the whole academic community in the finance-banking field. The internal rating models can be used to calculate the risk weight value of exposures, in order to determine the minimum capital requirements for credit risk, in accordance to government ordinance no. 99/2006, supplemented and modified by the Law no. 227/ 04.07.2007. By means of the internal rating models, we could achieve the following goals: pertinent evaluation of debtor characteristics; use of the computer system in risk evaluation within the decisional process of credit approval, internal allocation of capital and corporate governance of the credit institution.

Internal rating models, risk management, corporate governance, credit risk, IT instruments