The spectacular failure of top-rated structured finance products has brought renewed attention to the conflicts of interest of Credit Rating Agencies (CRAs). We model both the CRA conflict of understating credit risk to attract more business, and the issuer conflict of purchasing only the most...

This paper identifies rating verifiability as a key difference that explains why credit rating agencies (CRAs) failed to mitigate information asymmetries in the structured finance market but succeeded in the bond market. Two infinitely repeated models are analyzed. In the first, the rating is...

Since June 2007, the creditworthiness of structured finance products has deteriorated rapidly. The number of downgrades in November 2007 alone exceeded 2,000 and many downgrades were severe, with 500 tranches downgraded more than 10 notches. Massive downgrades continued in 2008. More than 11,000...

This white paper was commissioned by the Council of Institutional Investors for the purpose of educating its members, policymakers, and the general public about important credit rating agency regulation proposals and their potential impact on investors. It offers an institutional investor...

The spectacular failure of top-rated structured finance products has brought renewed attention to the conflicts of interest of Credit Rating Agencies (CRAs). We model both the CRA conflict of understating credit risk to attract more business, and the issuer conflict of purchasing only the most...

Fixed income markets rely on delegated asset management, where fund managers' portfolio decisions are directed and restricted by investment mandates. We use textual analysis to classify U.S. fixed income funds' mandate contents. Credit ratings can be used in mandates to define investable assets....

This paper was presented at the panel session on rating agencies and sovereign risk, held during the seminar on sovereign risk hosted by the BIS in January 2013.Full publication: "http://ssrn.com/abstract=2420000" Sovereign Risk: A World Without Risk-Free Assets?

Credit rating agencies have been a core concern in the reform of the global and European financial architecture prompted by the financial crisis. The European Regulation on Credit Rating Agencies (CRA Regulation) entered into force at the end of 2009. Activities of credit rating agencies and the...

Despite extensive criticism, the major credit rating agencies (CRAs) – Moody's, Standard & Poor's, and Fitch – remain as central entities in the financial markets of the U.S. and Europe, especially with respect to bonds and similar financial instruments. This chapter provides a discussion of...