Credit rating agencies
Taking on the big boys
Sean Egan, co-founder of Egan-Jones Ratings, talks to Dalia Fahmy about his frustration at the restrictive structure of the credit rating industry and his plans to turn Egan-Jones into a serious contender to rival established players, Moody's, S&P and…
Trade bodies back credit rating agency reforms
Washington, DC - Several financial industry trade associations are supporting reforms to the recognition of credit rating agencies in the US.
Cad text horrifies credit agencies
LONDON - Industry associations and rating agencies are concerned about the regulatory risk implications of new regulations on credit rating agencies inserted into the latest draft of the EU Cad, published in early July.
Market-implied ratings
There has been much debate over the respective merits of credit ratings and market-based indicators. Ludovic Breger, Lisa Goldberg and Oren Cheyette present a new approach that tries to incorporate the benefits of both approaches.
Market-implied ratings
There has been much debate over the respective merits of credit ratings and market-based indicators. Ludovic Breger, Lisa Goldberg and Oren Cheyette present a new approach that tries to incorporate the benefits of both approaches. Starting with agency…
Credit barrier models
Claudio Albanese, Giuseppe Campolieti, Oliver Chen and Andrei Zavidonov construct an analytic credit barrier model driven by credit ratings, constrained to fit the term structure of credit spreads
Congress demands ratings report from SEC after no-show at hearings
WASHINGTON, DC - The chairman of a House of Representatives subcommittee that held early April hearings titled "Rating the rating agencies: the state of transparency and competition," sent a strongly-worded letter to the chairman of the Securities and…
Bearing the brunt
Finance
IT infrastructure influences credit ratings, say agencies
NEW YORK - Credit rating agencies, including Standard & Poor's (S&P), Moody’s Investor Services and Fitch Ratings, are now more frequently assessing buy-side technology in terms of supporting operations and, in some instances, sources of operational risk.
Berating the raters
Last year the rating agencies were slammed in certain quarters for reacting too slowly to market events; this year, there are complaints that the agencies have overcompensated by reacting too fast. So what level of responsiveness will satisfy the bond…
Book extract > Regulatory Issues on Credit Ratings
The art (and some science) of credit rating has been in place, at least in the US, for almost a century now. In the Foreword we learned that credit rating as a process has its humble beginnings in the early 1900s in conjunction with theburgeoning market…
Book extract > Regulatory Use of Credit Ratings: Implications for Banks, Supervisors and Markets
Barbara C. Matthews is Banking Advisor and Regulatory Counsel to the Institute of International Finance, Inc. (IIF). The views presented in this chapter, however, are her personal views and do not necessarily represent the views of the IIF or its members…
Fitch Risk launches Credit Rating System
CreditVantage, the credit risk management division of Fitch Risk, has launched Credit Rating System (CRS), a suite of credit rating products designed to assist banks in implementing industry best practices in their credit analysis and capital allocation…
Meeting Basel II head on
Regulators are urging banks to update their rating methodologies in preparation for Basel II. Fitch Risk's Treeve Coomber thinks his new product will help to meet this challenge.
Rating agencies open can of worms
NEW YORK — Rating agencies are coming under much closer scrutiny as providers of operational risk analysis, as a result of the Basel Accord revisions and recent US corporate scandals.
McDonough paints brave new world of bank regulation
Echoing remarks made earlier in the week, William McDonough, president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, stressed that the results of the third Quantitative Impact Statement (QIS3) being compiled at the moment show that few changes will have to be…
McDonough speaks on QIS3 results, and US regulatory changes
"At this early stage, the results suggest that the incentives built into the New Accord are functioning as we had hoped," said William McDonough, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the head of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision…
Basel II likely to boost credit markets, says Fitch
The Basel II capital Accord is likely to boost credit market funding activities, particularly for lower investment-grade companies seeking financing, according to Fitch, the credit rating agency.
BIS puts spotlight on credit risk transfer
In a report published today, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) highlighted disclosure, concentration and the role of ratings agencies as key features of the credit risk transfer market that may need to be addressed with regulation.
Moody’s to give more weight to operational risk when rating banks
Moody's Investors Service will focus more on operational risks when rating banks, the rating agency said today.
Basel II helps German banks focus on risk, says Moody's
A renewed focus on profitability and strategic refocusing among German banks leads Moody's Investors Service to believe that “the country's banks will not undergo a systemic crisis”, the rating agency said in a report on the German banking sector,…
Tripping around credit quality
Jack Kennedy of Standard & Poor’s looks at the effect of round-trip trades on a firm’s credit quality and how they should be treated
Clearer waters for ratings
NATURAL GAS
A credit boost for traders
Clearing houses are emerging as a crucial function of energy trading exchanges. John Kennedy explains their importance in terms of a firm’s credit rating