The SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) has been investigating the sales and marketing of mortgage bond deals by financial firms and lenders. Now, it is expanding the probe to include credit rating agencies[1]. The SEC believes that the agencies, McGraw Hill’s Standard & Poor and Moody’s Investors Service (both owned by Moody’s Corp), may not have done enough research to “rate adequately the pools of subprime mortgages and other loans that underpinned the mortgage bond deals” that ultimately generated enormous losses for investors around the world.
Moody’s has responded, saying that the firm is “uncertain as to what [Wall Street Journal, who questioned them on the issue] is referring, [but] would certainly cooperate with any requests we receive from the SEC.”
Do you think that the credit agencies should face scrutiny as have investors, lenders and financial firms?
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[1] http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/17/standardandpoors-idUSL3E7HH1YM20110617
Absolutely.. they were to almost exclusively to blame for the fraud that their ratings did to the buyers who solely relied on their epetertixe to ensure they were not inventing in anything outer than AAA rated investments.. SAFE… that is not to say they were the ones guilty of the fradulent putting together of the “JUNK” but they playes the critical role of rating… now do they all need to serve jail tiime and rebate the american people.. YES