credit rating agencies

Standard & Poor's is revamping its credit rating methodology for banks and financial institutions in a way that may cause about 40% of rated banks to get a downgrade, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

If you've been rejected for a car loan due to poor credit, you might want to apply again. The automotive credit industry increased the share of new car loans going to credit-challenged borrowers by 12.7% in the third quarter, a sign that lenders are loosening their credit criteria.

Meredith Whitney, an analyst who rose to fame as one of the few people who predicted the financial crisis ahead of time, now plans to from a new credit agency, the Financial Times reports.

The U.K.'s triple-A credit rating is safe, thanks to the government's austerity measures and a flexible economy, rating agency Moody%u2019s said.

Standard & Poor's cut its credit ratings for Ireland on Tuesday, saying that the cost of supporting the country's ailing banking sector has risen. S&P lowered its long-term rating one notch to AA-minus, the fourth-highest investment grade, Reuters reported. The outlook on the rating is...

Moody's is reviewing 10 large regional banks for possible downgrades because it thinks financial reform means total government support is now less likely. That's setting off a debate about whether those banks will actually take a hit to profitability.

Now that credit rating agencies can be sued for issuing inflated ratings, they're refusing to allow their ratings to be used to sell bonds. Unfortunately, since some types of bonds are required to have such ratings, those parts of the bond market are shutting down.

While defending the rating agencies last week before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, Warren Buffett also admitted, "I don't need them." It seems that more and more, the financial markets are coming to agree with Buffett's stance on ratings.

Before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, The World's Greatest Investor essentially said this: We are all of us, myself included, a bunch of junkies -- and history shows that markets will always oblige us with a fix.

Lawmakers' decision to restrict financial institutions' ability to select a credit-rating agency to evaluate their bonds may open the market -- and S&P, Moody's and Fitch -- to competition.