The International Organization of Securities Commissions today published a consultation report on Good Practices on Reducing Reliance on CRAs in asset management. The report is aimed at gathering the views and practices of investment managers, institutional investors and other interested parties, with a view to developing a set of good practices on reducing over reliance on external credit rating in the asset management space.
Credit rating agencies (CRAs) play a prominent role in today’s global financial markets. Although approaches may differ across jurisdictions, investment managers often use the services of CRAs to form an opinion on the creditworthiness of a particular issuer before purchasing securities, selecting counterparties, or choosing the best collateral to secure transactions. On their part, investors often refer to CRA ratings before buying shares of a fund, or when guiding investment managers on the basis of a tailored investment mandate.
The role of CRAs has come under regulatory scrutiny, mainly as a result of the over-reliance of market participants, including investment managers and institutional investors, on CRA ratings in their assessments of both financial instruments and issuers in the run-up to the 2007-2008 financial crisis.
More details are available here.