Standard & Poor’s Responds to Discussion Draft of the ‘Accountability and Transparency in Rating Agencies Act’

Standard & Poor’s Responds to Discussion Draft of the ‘Accountability and Transparency in Rating Agencies Act’

NEW YORK, Sept. 25 /PRNewswire/ — Standard & Poor’s released the following statement regarding the discussion draft released today by Rep. Paul Kanjorski, Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises:
S&P is reviewing the initiatives proposed in the discussion draft of the bill, entitled “Accountability and Transparency in Ratings Agencies Act,” released today by Chairman Kanjorski. S&P will carefully study the proposed provisions and continue to engage with policy makers in Washington. Our goals remain the same: bolstering investor confidence, improving the performance of ratings and increasing transparency.
S&P itself has made many reforms in the past year to improve performance of ratings in structured finance.

These reforms include significant enhancements to our governance and transparency, as well as a substantial strengthening of our analytics. However, industry wide regulation is required to restore overall investor confidence in ratings.

Ratings are intended to provide an important and comparable global benchmark across all asset classes in terms of credit risk, thus facilitating access to capital for entrepreneurs and businesses, which helps drive the economy and create jobs. Regulatory reform should be designed to improve transparency and ratings performance. Reforms should also increase competition and not create new barriers to entry. S&P welcomes the opportunity to compete for investor interest in its ratings regardless of whether ratings are embedded in regulation rules for investors.

Standard & Poor’s, a subsidiary of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP), is the world’s foremost provider of independent credit ratings, indices, risk evaluation, investment research and data. With offices in 23 countries and markets, Standard & Poor’s is an essential part of the world’s financial infrastructure and has played a leading role for nearly 150 years in providing investors with the independent benchmarks they need to feel more confident about their investment and financial decisions.

For more information, visit http://www.standardandpoors.com.

SOURCE Standard & Poor’s