> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.creditbenchmark.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Contributor count and CCR Source classification

> How Credit Benchmark publishes contributor counts, applies publication thresholds, and distinguishes Consensus from Implied credit ratings using CCRSource.

The **Contributor Count** field indicates how many banks contributed a PD estimate for a given entity. It drives both the publication threshold and the `CCRSource` classification.

## Publication thresholds

Credit Benchmark requires that **two contributor banks** provide PDs on an entity before publishing a Consensus Credit Rating.

To help preserve anonymity around the contributed data, Credit Benchmark will not publish the exact contributor count when there are fewer than 5 contributors. The table below shows the relationship between the **true contributor count** and **what Credit Benchmark publishes.**

| True Contributor Count | CCR Source        | Published Contributor Count |
| ---------------------- | ----------------- | --------------------------- |
| 1                      | **Not published** | **Not published**           |
| 2                      | `Implied`         | `MIN`                       |
| 3–4                    | `Consensus`       | `MIN`                       |
| 5+                     | `Consensus`       | `5+`                        |

<Note>
  Any count below 5 is published as **MIN** rather than the actual number. This prevents users from inferring individual bank contributions when the pool is small.
</Note>

## Implied ratings

When exactly **2 banks** contribute a PD for an entity, Credit Benchmark introduces a **third obfuscation point** before publishing. This synthetic point is added to prevent reverse engineering of individual bank views from the published average — a concern that is more acute when the contributor pool is very small.

The obfuscation point is designed **not to move the average**, so the published rating still accurately reflects the views of the contributing banks. It adds protection without distorting the signal.

The `CCRSource` field is set to `Implied` in this case to signal that the published rating is derived from a protected pool rather than a full Consensus.

## When to use CCRSource

Filter on `CCRSource = "Consensus"` when you want to work only with ratings backed by 3 or more independent bank views. Implied ratings are valid credit signals but carry more uncertainty and a degree of obfuscation by design.