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Learn moreNot our argument — McGraw-Hill’s.
An interesting tack is taken in its lawyers’ motion to dismiss US charges of civil mortgage fraud against Standard & Poor’s, as filed on Monday… Read more
Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)
Learn moreOur headline is the same question you could have asked of Moody’s back in February…
The UK lost its second AAA rating on Friday night after Fitch cut its rating to AA+. The outlook’s stable. S&P is now the only one of the big three giving Britain a top rating. The rationale from Fitch: Read more
Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)
Learn moreItaly has finally fallen out of the ‘A’ ratings and into the Bs, at Fitch Ratings.
Here’s the explanation for cutting it to BBB+, outlook negative: Read more
Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)
Learn moreWorth reading the full Moody’s rationale for (finally) cutting its credit rating for the UK from Aaa to Aa1: Read more
Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)
Learn moreDid the world not already know that a CDO analyst at S&P parodied Talking Heads “Burning Down the House” as the residential market teetered in 2007?
Like “it could be structured by cows and we would rate it”, it feels like a meme that would need to be invented if it didn’t already exist. Read more
Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)
Learn moreHat-tip to the WSJ Law Blog, the full US government complaint against Standard & Poor’s:
Cardiff writes mostly about US macroeconomic issues, with daily excursions into other topics about which he claim no expertise. Before Alphaville, Cardiff spent a little more than two years as a reporter at Dow Jones Financial News covering investment banking, asset management, and private equity. Along the way he has written freelance pieces on a variety of other topics from behavioural psychology to Muay Thai, the latter also being a personal interest that involves frequently getting kicked in the shins (and torso, and head).
Learn moreAfter the two sides fired shots across each others’ bows — the Republicans through Politico and Obama via satellite — Fitch released a threatening note this morning:
Fitch Ratings’ expectation is that Congress will raise the debt ceiling and that the risk of a U.S. sovereign default remains extremely low. Nonetheless, and in line with our previous guidance, failure to raise the debt ceiling in a timely manner will prompt a formal review of the U.S. sovereign ratings. … Read more
Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)
Learn more
No explanation had been given by S&P at pixel time. [Update: it's pasted below the jump.] But the situation is pretty clear: Greece’s “voluntary” buyback of the PSI bonds is being carried out in distressed conditions (ie it will otherwise lose eurozone financial support). Read more
Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)
Learn moreYes, it’s very bad for S&P. Australia’s federal court found that the ratings agency had misled local councils through assigning AAA credit ratings to CPDOs which it had failed to check properly.
But since this could well be a landmark case for credit ratings as causes of financial harm… Read more
David joined the FT in 2011 as a Marjorie Deane fellow. He covered emerging markets, equities and currencies before making the jump over to FT Alphaville in May 2012.
Learn moreSo Standard & Poor’s has cut Spain by two notches, to BBB- from BBB+, just one notch above junk level. As the FT said:
The rating agency’s move came after markets had closed in New York, but the euro still fell slightly on the news to trade 0.1 per cent lower at $1.2870.
S&P’s report is in here. Read more
Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)
Learn moreFitch judges the risk of a fiscal financing crisis to be negligible…
But the rating agency still cranked up the negativity on the UK’s AAA rating on Friday. They affirmed it, but have been on negative outlook since March. Read more
Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)
Learn moreA request for comment by Moody’s — on how to rate asset-backed securities experiencing “rapid country credit deterioration”:
(Click to enlarge) Read more
Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)
Learn moreMoody’s left Italian sovereign debt two notches above junk on Friday, after downgrading it from A3 to Baa2.
The rating agency cited “signs of an eroding non-domestic investor base” for Italy’s bonds. Read more
Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)
Learn moreLook at the AAA sovereigns rise… then fall, after 2010:
Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)
Learn moreNew York, June 21, 2012 — Moody’s Investors Service today repositioned the ratings of 15 banks and securities firms with global capital markets operations. The long-term senior debt ratings of 4 of these firms were downgraded by 1 notch, the ratings of 10 firms were downgraded by 2 notches and 1 firm was downgraded by 3 notches. In addition, for four firms, the short-term ratings of their operating companies were downgraded to Prime-2. All four of those firms also now have holding company short-term ratings at Prime-2. The holding company short-term ratings of another two firms were downgraded to Prime-2 as well.
Morgan Stanley was downgraded by two notches rather than the three which were possible. Nine other banks also lost two notches. Moody’s did downgrade Credit Suisse three notches though. The full list… Read more
Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)
Learn moreCookie Monster: It a horse! It a cow! It a ball! It a pogo stick! It a rump roast! It a moose!
(Reuters) – The European Central Bank is discussing a medium-term plan to scrap rating rules on euro zone sovereign bonds and instead set their value when used as collateral in lending operations on its own internal assessment, central bank sources said… Read more
Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)
Learn moreOK. Before reading on… a reminder of how the sausage gets made in EU legislation. Something voted on by Members of European Parliament, or MEPs, still must go to the Council for approval and, quite often, amendment.
With that caveat, some sausage on sovereign credit rating regulation: Read more
From Mr Michael Maslinski, on Thursday…
Sir, Richard Lesmoir-Gordon (Letters, June 
is undoubtedly right in his conclusion that the excessive reliance on mathematics and financial models has driven out the traditional banking skills of “common sense, assessment of character, knowledge of history, how countries and cultures differ and experience of life”… Read more
Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)
Learn moreIt is more than 12 hours since DBRS, the Canada-based agency, placed its ratings for Italy, Spain, Ireland and Portugal under review with negative implications. So far the world hasn’t ended.
(*looks furtively outside*) Read more
Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)
Learn moreFitch Ratings-New York-11 May 2012: Fitch Ratings has downgraded JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s (JPM) Long-term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to ‘A+’ from ‘AA-’ and its Short-term IDR to ‘F1′ from ‘F1+’. Fitch has placed all parent and subsidiary long-term ratings on Rating Watch Negative.
Fitch has also downgraded JPM’s viability rating (VR) to ‘a+’ from ‘aa-’ and placed it on Rating Watch Negative. In addition, Fitch affirmed JPM’s ’1′ support rating and ‘A’ support rating floor. A full list of rating actions follows at the end of this release. Read more
Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)
Learn moreAnd it’s all free and open source.
Presenting the Public Sector Credit Framework — a quantitative alternative to sovereign and muni credit ratings produced by the agencies. It’s just launched: Read more
Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)
Learn moreJoseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)
Learn moreJoseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)
Learn moreWashington, D.C., April 24, 2012 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against Egan-Jones Ratings Company (EJR) and its owner and president Sean Egan for material misrepresentations and omissions in the company’s July 2008 application to register as a Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organization (NRSRO) for issuers of asset-backed securities (ABS) and government securities. EJR and Egan also are charged with material misrepresentations in other submissions furnished to the SEC and violations of record-keeping and conflict-of-interest provisions governing NRSROs.
Full SEC Order here. The regulator has alleged that Egan-Jones made a material misrepresentation in claiming to have rated government debt and ABS — and that it hadn’t — when making its NRSRO application, and that conflicts of interest were present: Read more
Izabella Kaminska joined FT Alphaville in October 2008. Before that she worked as a producer at CNBC, a natural gas reporter at Platts and an associate editor of BP's internal magazine.
Learn moreCredit rating feedback on Glencore’s recent deal-making spell is finally in. And there’s something of a small split between the two main agencies.
Moody’s, for example, changed the direction of its review of the ratings on Glencore International to direction “uncertain”, having previously had the ratings on review for upgrade. The issue they see is with debt and liquidity: Read more
Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)
Learn more‘Century bonds, eh?’, etc. Fitch affirmed the UK’s current rating at AAA…
Fitch Ratings-London-14 March 2012: Fitch Ratings has affirmed the United Kingdom’s (UK) sovereign ratings as follows: Read more
Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)
Learn moreMoody’s has placed the UK’s AAA rating on negative outlook alongside France and Austria, in a barrage of ratings actions in response to the eurozone debt crisis, says Reuters. Italy and Spain were each downgraded to A3 though Germany’s AAA status was deemed “appropriate” by the rating agency. Moody’s said the UK was the most heavily indebted of the AAA sovereigns it rates, adding that the country remained exposed to deterioration in the eurozone, according to the FT. Read more
Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)
Learn moreSpain and Italy downgraded, France (and the UK) on negative outlook. The EFSF affirmed. A slew of Moody’s ratings actions on the eurozone crisis late on Monday…
(Click image for full ratings statement) Read more
Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)
Learn moreJoseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)
Learn moreFive eurozone sovereigns (but not France!) downgraded by Fitch on Friday…
-Belgium LT IDR downgraded to ‘AA’ from ‘AA+’; Negative Outlook; ST IDR affirmed at ‘F1+’ Read more
| Market | Last price | Today's change |
52 week high |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FTSE 100 Index: FSI As of May 24 2013 16:35 |
6,654 | -42.45 | -0.6% | 6,876 |
| FTSEurofirst 300 Index: FSI As of May 24 2013 17:15 |
1,227 | -3.36 | -0.3% | 1,258 |
| S&P 500 INDEX: WCB As of May 24 2013 05:00 |
1,650 | -0.91 | -0.1% | 1,687 |
| Euro/US Dollar FX Spot Rate As of May 24 2013 17:05 |
1.29 | 0.00 | +0.0% | 1.37 |
| ICE Brent Crude Oil Front Month: IEU As of May 25 2013 00:00 |
102.64 | 0.00 | 0.00% | 119.17 |
| COMEX GOLD 1 FUTURES CHAIN Front Mon: CMX As of May 23 2013 23:15 |
1,392 | 0.00 | 0.00% | 1,795 |
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