We need to avoid monopolies or oligopolies in the market of risk-appraisals.

Sir it is indeed comforting to read the president and chief executive of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Timothy Geithner admit that “Regulation can distort incentives in ways that make the system less safe”; but also disappointing that in his Op-Ed “We can reduce risk in the financial system”, June 9, there is not a word about how the appointment by the regulators of the credit rating agencies as their delegated risk surveyors, reduced the incentives for the rest of the markets to do their own risk appraisals.