Tag:
Downgrades
Latest Headlines
Latest Headlines
Credit rating agencies assess debt crisis
Fitch rattled equity markets recently when it published a warning on the exposure of top U.S. banks to the European debt crisis.
According to the credit rating company, the six biggest U.S. banks--JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley--held a
Bank of America's derivatives shift stokes concerns
Bank of America raised eyebrows not too long ago when it said intended to shift some derivatives assets to a unit that holds insured funds, apparently at the request of counterparties that were concerned about recent credit downgrades.
Recall that Bank of America's bonds had recently been down
Was transparency lacking in S&P downgrade decision
Standard & Poor's decision to lower the credit rating of U.S. Treasuries to AA+ from AAA continues to generate criticism. One theme has been a general lack of transparency, a charge that looms larger in light of the $2 trillion methodological error that the agency owned up to right before it a
Moody's vs. Standard & Poor's
So who should we believe: Standard & Poor's, which has taken the unprecedented step of lowering the credit rating of long-term Treasuries to AA+, or Moody's, which is sticking with its AAA rating for now, as is Fitch?
S&P has gotten nearly all the publicity, much of it critical of its
What to make of the credit rating agencies
Do credit ratings agencies matter anymore?
This is a relevant question given that credit ratings agencies find themselves featured prominently in the news. In some ways, the on-going U.S. debt ceiling story has been a PR win for the agencies, especially Standard & Poor's, because for t
Ratings agencies can't win
Standard & Poor's, Moody's and Fitch have all been roundly criticized for their rosy ratings of mortgage-backed-related issues. They didn't start downgrading until it was way too late. Ever sensitive to the criticism, you can't blame them for considering methodology changes to commercial mortg
What to do about synthetic CDOs?
Collateralized debt obligations still plague the financial system. The main concern right now is not the CDOs that invested in subprime-backed securities, though such securities remain a lingering problem. The main concern right now centers on so called synthetic CDOs, which, in many cases, un
Synthetic CDSs starting to creak?
People aren't sure what to make of the synthetic credit default swaps market. The media has been rife with stories suggesting that the market is creaking and may be the next leg down in the credit crunch. Some think it is inevitable that the same pain felt in CDOs that invested in subprimes will b
Industry hangs in the balance: Whitney vs. Bove
In times such as these, new stars are born.
Two of the brightest stars right now are Meredith Whitney of Oppenheimer and Richard Bove of Ladenburg Thalmann. There are some other highly respected analysts, like Michael Mayo of Deutsche Bank and Guy Moszkowski of Merrill Lynch. But in terms of s
Commercial mortagage-backed products faring better?
As the residential mortgage-backed market fiasco continues to unwind, there has been a lot of fear that the commercial market would come under similar pressure soon. For now, commercial mortgage-backed securities and the collateralized debt obligations that invest in them seem to be holding up. Th
