Institutional Investor (March 20)
“The coronavirus pandemic has pushed the world’s economy into a slowdown that may lead to default rates jumping as high as 10 percent in the next twelve months, according to analysts at S&P Global…. The sudden stop in global economic activity, the recent drop in oil prices, and record market volatility are all putting pressure on the creditworthiness of companies.”
Tags: Analysts, Coronavirus, Default, Economy, Oil prices, Pandemic, S&P, Slowdown, Vlatility
New York Times (March 23)
“It’s the one question about the 2008 financial crisis that people still ask me more than any other: Why have regulators done so little to rein in the credit rating agencies?” Despite abuses which helped create the sub-prime crisis and despite numerous resolutions to revise the regulatory environment for firms like S&P and Moody’s, little has been done. “Ratings still loom large, even after they were found to have been so disastrously inaccurate in 2008. It’s yet another example of the glacial pace of regulatory change.”
Tags: Abuses, Credit rating agencies, Financial Crisis, Moody's, Ratings, Regulators, S&P, Sub-prime crisis
Euromoney (October Issue)
Warning some stock exchanges could face downgrades, ratings agency S&P cautioned that they “have become more prone to operational risk.” Fragmentation is one key challenge. “There are now 16 SEC-registered securities exchanges in the US and more than 50 alternative trading systems, whereas before 2005 the equities market was dominated by NYSE and Nasdaq. It is this interconnectivity that is fueling operational risk. When Nasdaq halted trading in August, for example, other stock exchanges, including NYSE, Bats and Direct Edge, were also forced to stop trading in Nasdaq-listed securities.”
Tags: BATS, Challenge, Direct Edge, Downgrades, Fragmentation, Interconnectivity, Nasdaq, NYSE, Operational risk, S&P, SEC, Securities, Stock exchanges, Trading, U.S.
Businessweek (April 23, 2013)
Credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) is trying to dismiss a fraud suit being filed by the U.S. Department of Justice. Both “outrageous” and “even insulting,” S&P’s defense asserts “S&P cannot be held liable for its prolific claims of integrity and analytic skill because those boasts were the sort of baloney that investors and the wider public never take seriously in the first place… In other words: Only a sap would believe the nice things we say about our work.”
Forbes (February 5)
“The U.S. Justice Department announced plans to file civil fraud charges against Standard & Poor’s (S&P) relating to the atrocious ratings that Standard & Poor’s gave to toxic subprime mortgage-backed securities…. This is a welcome—if long overdue—development for investors who have been waiting for years for the Feds to take decisive action against those responsible for crashing the world economy.”
Wall Street Journal (January 17)
Over the past 5 years, the EU has been suffering from “a kind of schizophrenia about the role that credit-rating agencies such as Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch should play in the markets.” Some of the reforms have been hare-brained, like trying to silence downgrades, but the latest package is on target with a proposal to write the agencies out of EU law. “Denying ratings any sort of official status is the best reform for a business that has long dined out on the privileged position that regulators granted them. It should also really be the only reform you need.”
Tags: Credit-rating agencis, EU law, Fitch, Moody's, Official status, Regulators, S&P
Financial Times (November 5)
“In a landmark case that could pave the way for legal action in Europe,” an Australian judged ruled that “Standard & Poor’s misled investors by awarding its highest rating to a complex derivative product that collapsed in value less than two years after it was created by ABN Amro’s wholesale banking division.” The “damning verdict” marked “the first time a rating agency has stood a full trial over a structured finance product.” The court concluded that any “reasonably competent” rating agency would “not have given a triple A rating to the securities,” which were “grotesquely complicated.”“In a landmark case that could pave the way for legal action in Europe,” an Australian judged ruled that “Standard & Poor’s misled investors by awarding its highest rating to a complex derivative product that collapsed in value less than two years after it was created by ABN Amro’s wholesale banking division.” The “damning verdict” marked “the first time a rating agency has stood a full trial over a structured finance product.” The court concluded that any “reasonably competent” rating agency would “not have given a triple A rating to the securities,” which were “grotesquely complicated.”
Tags: ABN Amro, Australia, Court, Derivatives, Rating agency, S&P, Structured finance, Verdict
Los Angeles Times (September 12)
In the U.S. a fiscal cliff is approaching when tax cuts expire on January 1, government spending is scheduled for automatic reduction and limits on government borrowing will be reached. “The message from the analysts at Moody’s and S&P is that lawmakers can’t keep putting off the day of reckoning. Moody’s set a reasonable condition for avoiding a downgrade: adopting policies that stabilize, then reduce the debt as a percentage of the U.S. economy over the next several years.”
Wall Street Journal (April 8)
As a group, S&P companies have gained efficiency while rebounding to pre-recession levels. “S&P 500 companies have become more efficient—and more productive. In 2007, the companies generated an average of $378,000 in revenue for every employee on their payrolls. Last year, that figure rose to $420,000.” These same companies have also increased capital expenditures, reduced debt and increased cash on hand.
As a group, S&P companies have gained efficiency while rebounding to pre-recession levels. “S&P 500 companies have become more efficient—and more productive. In 2007, the companies generated an average of $378,000 in revenue for every employee on their payrolls. Last year, that figure rose to $420,000.” These same companies have also increased capital expenditures, reduced debt and increased cash on hand.
Tags: CAPEX, Cash, Debt, Efficiency, Productivity, Recession, S&P
Barrons (March 31)
An apple a day may keep the doctor away. It certainly improves the S&P’s performance. “Without Apple, first-quarter profits for the Standard & Poor’s 500 would have been up only 10%, not the 13% reported.”
An apple a day may keep the doctor away. It certainly improves the S&P’s performance. “Without Apple, first-quarter profits for the Standard & Poor’s 500 would have been up only 10%, not the 13% reported.”
