The SEC examined all 10 firms registered Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organization (.pdf 23 pages) and found all 10 had “apparent failures”. The SEC has requested remediation plans from each of the agencies within 30 days and is continuing its investigation. The issues found included “apparent failures in some instances to follow ratings methodologies and [...]
Tag Archives: Rating agencies
Credit Rating Agencies and Conflicts of Interest
Personally, I place a big chunk of blame on the Credit Rating Agencies for the Great Panic of 2008. They were throwing AAA ratings at piles of garbage. There is an inherent conflict in the rater being paid by the security issuer instead of the security purchaser. They are beholden to the customer and the [...]
What About the Rating Agencies?
There has been lots of criticism aimed at Goldman Sachs over the Abacus 2007-AC1 deal. They help set up a CDO so their client, Paulson & Company, could make a bet on a downturn in the residential real estate market. To make that bet, they allowed Paulson to influence the securities that went into the [...]
Rating Agencies and the First Amendment
Rating agencies have long argued that their ratings of securities are constitutionally protected opinions. Many people have pinned some of the responsibility for the financial markets meltdown on the rating agencies. It sure looks like they gave a fair number of these securities a high rating when they were actually toxic. Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank [...]
Credit Rating Agency Reform
Last week the Securities and Exchange Commission held a roundtable on the credit agencies to consider a range of ideas to get tougher on them. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro lead the discussion and pointed out that “rating agency performance in the area of mortgage-backed securities backed by residential subprime loans, and the [...]
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