Monetary unions generally boost financial markets. But European private capital markets have progressed at an unsatisfactory pace even with the euro. What accounts for this? We focus on an increasingly key financial infrastructure: Rating Agencies (RAs). Taking an international perspective, we...

Thanks to an analysis of structural changes in abnormal spread series, we stress specific investors' reactions to rating actions. These reactions are much more usual when the issues are in sterlings than in euros. When reacting in the euro area, investors mainly react after banks' and public...

A short overview of the regulation -or lack thereof- of Credit Rating Agencies across the US and Europe. The article focuses on the rationale behind the lack of regulation that has characterized credit rating agencies for so many years, and comments on some approaches that have been suggested at...

Credit rating agencies (CRAs) bear some responsibility for the financial crisis that started in 2007 and remains ongoing. This is acknowledged by policymakers, market participants, and by the agencies themselves. It soon became clear that, given the depth of the crisis, CRAs would not be able to...