-
Crisis in ratings land?
PROTESTING that only fools would rely on your product to make investment decisions may seem a dangerous argument to make. Yet it is one that has served credit-ratings agencies well over the years, allowing them to sell ratings to debt issuers while abjuring legal responsibility for the quality of their work. A ruling by an Australian court this week, however, has raised questions for the industry about its immunity from prosecution. The ruling in the Federal Court of Australia on November 5th held Standard & Poor’s (S&P) jointly liable with ABN AMRO, a bank, for the losses suffered by local councils that had ... (full story)