Tag:
Moody's
Latest Headlines
Latest Headlines
New study casts doubt on Moody's methodology
The debacle over the decision by Standard & Poor's to downgrade U.S. Treasury debt to AA+ from AAA will likely come back to haunt it. It will likely come to haunt other debt rating companies as well.
Case in point: Fortune magazine notes a recent study by academics at Indiana Universit
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
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
Credit raters' warnings on U.S. debt carrying less weight
Fitch Ratings became the last of the big three credit rating agencies to weigh in on the U.S. debt situation, issuing a report that suggests that if the government cannot find a way to raise the statutory debt limit, the agency would have no choice but to seriously reconsider its AAA rating of U.S
Credit rating woes still linger
A recent Reuters column carried this headline: "Rating structured bonds is impossible." It's a sentiment many would share in the wake of the CDO meltdown. Despite lots of criticism, there hasn't been a revolutionary shift in the way structure debt is rated. The big ratings agencies are still p
Whitney to start credit rating agency
Star analyst Meredith Whitney aims to launch a new credit rating agency to compete toe-to-toe with Standard & Poor's and Moody's. She will soon seek a license to act as a nationally recognized statistical rating organization, a designation needed to formally rate debt. Whitney decided to seek
Former Moody's executive sues company, claims he was blackballed
Ilya Eric Kolchinsky may be familiar to you, as he testified in Congress about the flawed rating model used by Moody's, his former employer. He just filed suit against the company, accusing it of retaliating for voicing concerns and claiming that he had been blackballed on Wall Street.
Kolchin
The end of ratings agencies?
The Goldman Sachs ( NYSE: GS ) news to a certain extent drowned out a lot of other bad news, like the fallout from the recent hearings about credit ratings agencies. Executives from Standard & Poor's and Moody's presented an unflattering portrait of the agencies shocking zeal to hand underwr
Cocos to the rescue?
There's been a lot of talk lately about what a great idea contingent convertibles are. The interest seemed to have been sparked by Lloyd's big issue last month. It sounds ideal on paper: Securities that act like bonds but convert to common stock in tough times would certainly help banks keep their
Moody's causes nervousness over hybrids
Moody's will soon name which bank hybrids will be affected by its decision to change the methodology by which it rates these securities. The ratings agency really had no choice, and this change has been in the works for a while now. It's not like it was a secret.
The issue is that holders of t
