New Delhi, Aug. 13 -- The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has proposed a visual risk meter for debt securities, mapping credit ratings to six colour-coded risk levels to make credit risk easier for investors, particularly retail investors, to understand.

In a consultation paper issued on Thursday, the market regulator said conventional credit ratings such as AAA, AA+ and BBB- may not be easily understood by investors. Under the proposal, existing ratings would be mapped to six risk levels, each represented by a different colour.

AAA-rated securities would be classified as having the "lowest credit risk" and carry the colour "Irish Green", while AA+, AA and AA- securities would be classified as having "very low credit risk"...