The German mortgage banking market - Results of an empirical study: The corporate client segment as well as the presence in the international market places for commercial real estate lending and for the financing of public sector institutions will considerably gain in importance for German...

We provide insights into determinants of the rating level of 371 issuers which defaulted in the years 1999 to 2003, and into the leader-follower relationship between Moody’s and S&P. The evidence for the rating level suggests that Moody’s assigns lower ratings than S&P for all observed...