S&P president departs as criticism of rating agencies continues

Kathleen Corbet, the president of rating agency Standard & Poor's, has resigned.

Corbet will be replaced by Deven Sharma, the executive vice-president of investment services and global sales. The New York-based agency said she was leaving "to seek other opportunities".

Sharma's most important job is likely to be rebuilding market confidence in his agency. Standard & Poor's, and other rating agencies, have been censured for failing to provide better warning of the crisis in US subprime mortgages. S&P in particular was criticised after it downgraded two structured investment vehicles exposed to mortgage-backed securities by 16 and 17 notches at once.
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Subprime crisis "worse than 1998", says S&P