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Credit Rating Agency
(redirected from Credit Ratings Agencies)

   Also found in: Wikipedia 0.01 sec.
Credit Rating Agency
A company that provides investors with assessments of an investment's risk. The issuers of investments, especially debt securities, pay credit rating agencies to provide them with ratings. A high rating indicates low risk and may therefore encourage investors to buy a security. Additionally, banks may only invest in securities with a high rating from two or more credit rating agencies. The SEC recognizes 10 firms as credit rating agencies; Fitch, S&P, and Moody's are the three most prominent. However, the methods of credit ratings agencies have been subject to criticism. For example, most agencies gave high-risk mortgage-backed securities top ratings until they defaulted at the collapse of the housing bubble.


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Mentioned in?  References in periodicals archive?   Financial browser?   Full browser?
 
Credit ratings agencies are not necessarily credible but unfortunately the markets follow their forecasts, Nobel Prize laureate Christopher Pissarides stated today.
Credit ratings agencies monitor the creditworthiness of governments, local authorities and companies, and their reports are vital documents for investors judging risk.
Credit ratings agencies have come, and deservedly too, under a lot of fire over the past two years for their failures in rating debt that helped perpetuate the bubble whose bursting we are all feeling.
 
 
 
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