rating agencies

The Senate is moving to end the ability of financial institutions to choose the credit rating agencies that rate their investment products, with two amendments to the financial reform bill that could force banks and others to vouch for their own offerings.

Even since Standard & Poors warned Britain about its credit rating last May, I've been wondering when one of the credit rating agencies would take aim at the U.S. and its gaping federal budget deficit. Moody's (MCO) did just that on Reuters Television Thursday, when it said if the U.S. doesn't...

A judge's refusal to dismiss a case against an investment bank and a few ratings agencies for their role in the structured investment vehicle collapse of 2007 raises the possibility that those defendants might actually be required to pay for wrapping toxic waste in golden paper. (SIVs are money...

Insurance firm AIG (AIG) appears to have a deal with the federal government to get more capital and better terms on the money it has already borrowed. The $150 billion restructuring would also give taxpayers stakes in some of AIG's more financially healthy divisions. Reuters is reporting that AIG's...