Credit-Ratings Firms May Have to Show EU Data

[Modbert]

Credit-Ratings Firms May Have to Show EU Data - Bloomberg

Credit-ratings companies may be forced to disclose the internal analyses they use when they decide to cut a European Union government’s rating, the region’s financial services commissioner said.

Nations may win the right to check the data used by the companies in advance of downgrades of their sovereign ratings, Michel Barnier said in the text of a speech in Paris speech today. The measures may be included in legislation to rein in the ratings firms, he said.

Ratings companies “occupy a place which is far too important in Europe,” Barnier said. “We are considering compulsory publication of the analysis which leads to modification of a rating and the obligation of conducting a full analysis more regularly.”

Moody’s Investors Service cut Portugal’s credit rating by four levels last week, prompting criticism from the EU that ratings companies are unnecessarily exacerbating the region’s sovereign-debt crisis. European Commission President Jose Barroso said he “deeply” regretted the timing and magnitude of the downgrade and said proposals for increasing regulation of the rating companies in Europe would come out this year.

Between this and wanting to create their own rating agency in Europe, very interesting what's brewing on the other side of the Atlantic.