Credit Rating Agencies
IMF explores ways to reform US mortgage finance
Policies to foster homeownership for lower income households did not cause the crisis, research says
Central Bank of Barbados challenges rating downgrade
S&P lowers Barbados’s sovereign credit rating triggering angry response from central bank; says it is ‘manifestly’ not the case that debt risk has increased
Moody’s alters sovereign debt ratings of nine EU countries
Austria, France and the UK see outlooks on Aaa ratings changed to negative; Spain and five other countries’ ratings are downgraded
Fitch issues stern warning to the US
Affirms AAA rating but says failure to agree on deficit-reduction measures would ‘likely result in negative rating action’
Credit rating agencies slam sovereign warning proposal
EU Commission proposal for credit rating agencies to give sovereigns three days’ notice of a rating change causes “grave concerns”
S&P lowers Greece rating
Credit rating agency lowers Greece sovereign ratings; believes eurozone official creditors “may see a restructuring of official and commercial debt as the best way forward”
S&P lifts China rating one notch
Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s upgrades Chinese long-term rating; move follows similar step by Moody’s in November, places Chinese debt three marks short of prime rating