We test if issuers of asset- and mortgage-backed securities receive rating favors from agencies with which they maintain strong business relationships. Controlling for issuer fixed effects and a large set of credit risk determinants, we show that agencies publish better ratings for those issuers...

Ratings in emerging markets can serve as part of the early warning systems to reflect the weak signals of potential risks to the entity from the environment. Emerging markets have specific features that rating agencies usually consider in judgments of their credit ratings. They are underpinned...

This paper examines the issues of the aggregation and comparison of the credit ratings of various economic agents for risk management purposes in a commercial bank. The empirical results of the study make it possible to increase the assessment of credit risks based on the constructed system of...

This work examines the information value of local Israeli credit rating announcements. This matter is also important to other small markets, in which a debt issuer may take advantage of a “rating shopping” process or choose to avoid a rating procedure altogether, because the agencies do not...

This paper empirically analyses the effect of foreign block acquisitions on the U.S. target firms' credit risk as captured by their CDS. The involvement of foreign investors leads to a significant increase in the target firms' CDS spreads. This effect is stronger when foreign owners are...