Certo Rating Index

Certo develops and publishes a periodic, comparative index of public credibility based on governance quality — Certo Rating Index — covering entities, sectors or countries subject to the Foundation's evaluation activities. The Index is based on aggregated rating results from the Foundation, data on the dynamics of governance quality changes over time, and publicly available comparative data. Each edition of the Index contains a prognostic component indicating the expected directions of change based on the declared development objectives of assessed entities and identified trends.

What is Certo Rating

Certo Rating is not an opinion. It is a cryptographic artifact of the process — a record of a decision that exists independently of its creator's infrastructure. Each rating is:

• Offline verifiable — the hash of the rating decision is anchored in external public registers
• Immutable after issuance — neither party can unilaterally withdraw or change an issued rating without generating a visible trace
• Publicly auditable — the complete decision path is available for review by authorized entities

Dual-Brain Engine

The heart of the assessment system is the Dual-Brain Engine — a dual-track analysis architecture combining:

Quantitative analysis includes:

• Structure of governing and supervisory bodies
• History of changes in body composition
• Documentation of the decision-making process
• Indicators of regulatory compliance

Qualitative analysis includes:

• Assessment of organizational culture based on internal documents
• Analysis of consistency between declared values and actions
• Verification of conflict of interest management procedures
• Assessment of internal control system effectiveness

Both branches of analysis must independently demonstrate a sufficient level of governance quality for a rating to be issued.

Hard Gates

Hard Gates are seven mandatory conditions, the non-fulfillment of which automatically excludes an entity from the rating process regardless of the results of the remaining assessment:

1. No criminal proceedings pending against members of governing bodies
2. Regular and documented meetings of statutory bodies
3. No arrears to public authorities (social security, tax authority, business register)
4. Current and publicly accessible beneficial ownership register
5. No conflict of interest in the composition of the supervisory body
6. Documented procedure for reporting irregularities (whistleblowing)
7. Consistency of legal and organizational structure with the declared governance model

Failure to meet any of the Hard Gates results in suspension of the rating process until the irregularity is remedied.

Compliance Engine

Compliance Engine verifies an institution's compliance with applicable sectoral and EU-wide regulations. The engine is continuously updated in line with changes in EU and Polish law.

Compliance assessment includes:

• Sectoral regulations applicable to the given institution
• EU directives and regulations applicable in the given sector
• National implementing provisions
• Industry standards and codes of good practice

Break-Glass Protocol

Break-Glass Protocol is a procedure for emergency access to rating records in crisis situations — entity liquidation, bankruptcy proceedings, investigation initiated by law enforcement.

The Protocol specifies:

• Who has access to records and under what circumstances
• How each access case is documented
• What notification mechanisms apply to assessed entities
• How data integrity is ensured in the disclosure process

Certo Score and Certo Vector

Each issued rating consists of two elements:

Certo Score — a synthetic assessment of governance quality expressed on a numerical scale. It enables comparison of entities within a sector and over time.

Certo Vector — the direction of change in governance quality in the last assessment period. It takes five values: ++ (significant improvement), + (improvement), no change, − (deterioration), −− (significant deterioration).

The combination of Score and Vector provides a complete picture of both the current state of governance and its dynamics.