The credit ratings agencies and stakeholder relations: issues for regulators

Criticism of rating agencies is not peculiar to the credit crisis. They have been lampooned for their failure to anticipate the Asian financial crisis of 1997 or the corporate failures that emerged in the early years of the twenty first century. Interaction between credit rating agencies and other market participants is reviewed, as are conflicts of interest and allegations of abuses of regulation. Particular attention is paid to the extensive regulation being imposed by the EU in relation to credit rating agencies and how this will directly impact on the way in which the agencies conduct their business.