USA: credit rating agencies - further SEC reforms

The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced further changes to the rules governing credit rating agencies. The new rules have not yet been published but in a press release issued earlier this month the SEC chairman, Christopher Cox, observed that they would:

... touch every aspect of the credit rating process – from conflicts of interest, to publication of ratings methodologies, to disclosure of ratings track records ... The SEC’s examinations of credit rating agencies uncovered serious deficiencies that these rules will address, so that investors and markets will have better information to guide investment decisions.”