Today, the conference committee merging the House and Senate versions of financial regulatory reform agreed to water down a provision randomizing the assignment of deals to credit ratings agencies — overhauling the business by stopping companies from shopping for favorable ratings. The reform, proposed by Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), More…
It has been a quiet week on the financial regulatory reform front, but that does not mean the deal-making has stopped. With the House and Senate out of session this week, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) has been pushing his provision to reform the credit ratings agencies, and Sens. Jeff Merkley More…
Testifying before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission this afternoon, Warren Buffett — the legendary value investor who heads Omaha-based investment giant Berkshire Hathaway — defended the behavior of the country’s credit ratings agencies and his own role in them, while acknowledging that the model under which they operate creates a More…
Fortune has a great story up: The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission requested that Warren Buffett, the head of investment giant Berkshire Hathaway, come testify. He declined. The panel — charged with investigating the causes of the financial crisis and known for its aggressive and public grilling of Wall Street More…
This afternoon, the Senate passed two amendments enhancing the regulation of credit rating agencies, which assess financial products and assign them ratings based on their likelihood of default.
The credit rating business has a conflict of interest at its heart, in that the companies hire the ratings agencies — the More…
Mortgage lenders aren’t selling subprime loans much anymore, but apparently the credit rating agencies that certified them as safe and profitable investments are back at it, this time killing a book critical of, well, a ratings agency.
The tale comes from Barry Ritholtz at The Big Picture, who had More…
At the end of a five-hour excoriation of CEOs at credit-rating agencies, Rep. Chris Shays (R-Conn.) said to the heads of Moody’s, Standard’s & Poor’s and Fitch: “Remember, we’re speaking from an institution, Congress, with lower ratings than yours.”
Congress doesn’t know what its next step will be in regulating More…
The House oversight committee released a smattering of documents today from two big credit-rating agencies– Moody’s and Standard & Poor — on how they evaluated mortgage-backed securities and credit default swaps. One letter shows that S&P decided to lower its standard in rating mortgage-backed securities simply to compete with More…
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