March 24, 2011

The credit rating agent’s cloister conundrum

Sir, everywhere we turn we read about the impacts of upgrading and downgrading of the credit ratings, as when Jennifer Hughes reports “CLO ratings set to benefit from Moody’s re-evaluation” March 24.

Having given these credit ratings so much importance, should we not also have to construe cloisters where the credit rating agents can isolate themselves from the temptations? But, answering that question let us not also forget that if we isolate the credit rating agents in their cloisters, then it will most probably be us who will fall into the wrong temptations. What a conundrum!