The paper examines and analyses the impact of the countries' credit ratings changes on the cost of credit defaults swaps premium. It is assumed statistical significance abnormal returns due to changes in credit ratings assigned by the agencies. It is hypothesized that ratings events convey new...

For decades credit rating agencies were viewed as trusted arbiters of creditworthiness and their ratings as important tools for managing risk. The common narrative is that the value of ratings was compromised by the evolution of the industry to a form where issuers pay for ratings. In this paper...