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Moody's Just Made 16 More Huge Downgrades In Spain Simone Foxman Oct. 19, 2011, 4:51 PM Moody's Investors Service downgraded nine Spanish regions, two Basque provinces, and five government-related entities, a day after it downgraded Spanish sovereign debt. That included demoting one region — Castilla-La Mancha — by five notches, from A3 to Ba2. It also remains on downgrade review. This newest report confirms that the gravity of the debt crisis is deepening in Spain, one of the countries most vulnerable to banking contagion. Here's the full release from Moody's. --- Madrid, October 19, 2011 -- Moody's Investors Service has...

Moody's cuts Spain by 2 notches, sees funding risks By Walter Brandimarte NEW YORK | Tue Oct 18, 2011 6:19pm EDT (Reuters) - Moody's Investors Service on Tuesday cut Spain's sovereign ratings by two notches, saying high levels of debt in the banking and corporate sectors leave the country vulnerable to funding stress. Worsening growth prospects for the euro zone will also make it more challenging for Spain to reach its ambitious fiscal targets, the ratings agency added. Spain could be downgraded again if the euro zone debt crisis escalates further, Moody's warned. "Since placing Spain's ratings under review in...

Moody’s Downgrades Italy By Three Notches /snip Here’s the Moody’s report: Moody’s Investors Service has today downgraded Italy’s government bond ratings to A2 with a negative outlook from Aa2, while affirming its short-term ratings at Prime-1. The rating action concludes the review for downgrade initiated by Moody’s on 17 June, 2011. The main drivers that prompted the rating downgrade are: (1) The material increase in long-term funding risks for euro area sovereigns with high levels of public debt, such as Italy, as a result of the sustained and non-cyclical erosion of confidence in the wholesale finance environment for euro sovereigns,...

Just out... Bank of America has had its long-term senior debt cut to BAA1 by Moody's. The stock is off about 3%. It had been just barely down right before the news hit the wires. Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/bank-of-america-just-got-downgraded-by-moodys-2011-9#ixzz1Ybk25QPB

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded the ratings of Bank of America Corporation's (NYSE: BAC) holding company to Baa1 from A2 for long-term senior debt and to Prime-2 from Prime-1 for short-term debt. The long-term deposit ratings of Bank of America N.A. (BANA) were downgraded to A2 from Aa3, while BANA's short-term rating was affirmed at Prime-1. The actions conclude a review for downgrade announced on June 2, 2011. The outlook on the long-term senior ratings remains negative. The downgrades result from a decrease in the probability that the US government would support the bank, if needed. Moody's believes that the...

Moody’s Investors Service on Wednesday downgraded French banks Credit Agricole SA and Societe Generale SA as the credit-rating company also said it has become increasingly concerned about the funding and liquidity needs of the lenders. Moody’s had said in June that it was considering downgrading France’s top three listed banks because of their exposure to Greek debt and said Wednesday that it is still reviewing BNP Paribas. The announcements came after big swings for French-bank stocks in recent days amid reports that downgrades were imminent and as investors became increasingly nervous about the banks’ funding situation. Shares in Credit Agricole...

Moody's cuts Japan rating, blames politics By Rie Ishiguro | Reuters TOKYO (Reuters) - Moody's Investors Service cut its rating on Japan's government debt by one notch to Aa3 on Wednesday, blaming a build-up of debt since the 2009 global recession and revolving-door political leadership that has hampered effective economic strategies. Japan is preparing to elect its sixth leader in five years to replace unpopular Prime Minister Naoto Kan, under fire for his handling of the response to a March tsunami and subsequent radiation crisis at a crippled nuclear power plant. The downgrade, while not out of the blue, served...

Today I am going to do something different, openly praise blatant incompetence. I will list my reasons later but first let me sing the praises of sheer incompetence at Moody's, Fitch, and the S&P (the big 3 rating agencies). Downgrade of U.S. Debt Long Overdue Many are in shock that the S&P downgraded debt of the US from AAA. Not me. It was long overdue. However, the S&P proved it was incompetent in the way it made the downgrade. Pray tell how can a rating agency make a $2 trillion error? The answer is obvious: sheer incompetence. The irony is...

highlights of Harrington's story below. Here are some key points: Moody's ratings often do not reflect its analysts' private conclusions. Instead, rating committees privately conclude that certain securities deserve certain ratings--but then vote with management to give the securities the higher ratings that issuer clients want. Moody's management and "compliance" officers do everything possible to make issuer clients happy--and they view analysts who do not do the same as "troublesome." Management employs a variety of tactics to transform these troublesome analysts into "pliant corporate citizens" who have Moody's best interests at heart. Moody's product managers participate in--and vote on--ratings decisions....

Moody's Analytics on Monday lowered its outlook for growth in the U.S. economy this year and next, saying it sees "significantly weaker" prospects for the economy than just a month ago as the country struggles to avoid another recession. The report ...cites the recent political wrangling over the U.S. debt ceiling and the revived debt crisis in Europe as leading factors in the bleaker economic picture. "The odds of a renewed recession over the next 12 months, already one in three, will increase if stock prices continue to fall

WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) -- Little is known about key details that led Standard & Poor's to downgrade U.S. debt late Friday, despite its outsized repurcussions. While the move knocking U.S. debt down a notch from the lofty AAA rating has exacerbated an already skittish stock market and drawn criticism from the White House, key details are a mystery. S&P doesn't say who, exactly, made the decision at the company; what kind of weight they gave U.S. politics versus ability to pay; or to what extent they felt pressured to downgrade the United States in response to criticism of its downgrades of...

Ratings agency Moody's repeated a warning on Monday it could downgrade the United States before 2013 if the fiscal or economic outlook weakens significantly, but said it saw the potential for a new debt agreement in Washington to cut the budget deficit before then. With U.S. markets still to open after rival Standard & Poor's stripped the United States of its AAA rating late on Friday, Moody's said in a statement its own decision to affirm the AAA rating on August 2 was on the condition that further cuts were found. "For the Aaa rating to remain in place, we...

A credit rating is an informed opinion. Nothing more. Nothing less. That helps explain why one major credit rating agency -- Standard & Poor's -- has downgraded the United States, while another -- Moody's (Symbol : MCO Loading... ) -- has chosen to affirm its credit rating with caveats. Both agencies had the same essential set of facts about U.S. debt: There's a lot of it now. There's a lot more of it to come. And there's very little in the way of actual policy today that looks likely to seriously change that outlook. Where the agencies differ, however, is...

RPT-UPDATE 1-Italy prosecutors seize Moody's, S&P documents Thu Aug 4, 2011 1:13pm EDT (Fixes dateline) * Magistrates probe "anomalous" share price moves * S&P, Moody's defend their work (adds Moody's comment paragraph 6) MILAN, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Italian prosecutors have seized documents at the offices of rating agencies Moody's and Standard & Poor's in a probe over suspected "anomalous" fluctuations in Italian share prices, a prosecutor said on Thursday. The measure is aimed at "verifying whether these agencies respect regulations as they carry out their work," Carlo Maria Capistro, who heads the prosecutors' office in the southern town of...

And so the war against the rating agencies is now official as a floundering Europe does anything in its power to scapegoat anyone and everyone, starting with its natural sworn enemy of course, the rating agencies. According to Reuters, "Italian prosecutors have seized documents at the offices of credit rating agencies Moody's and Standard & Poor's in a probe over Suspected "anomalous" Fluctuations in Italian share prices, a prosecutor said on Thursday." Ah yes, it is Moody's fault that Unicredit, Intesa, Fiat and pretty much all other Italian companies now close limit down at least once a day. Either way,...

Chinese credit-rating agency Dagong Global Credit Rating Co. again downgraded U.S. sovereign debt Wednesday and warned of further downgrades, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.... Dagong cut U.S. Treasurys to A from A+, with a negative outlook, saying growth in U.S. debt is still outpacing revenue growth. The latest move followed a Dongang downgrade of U.S. debt from AA to A+ in November, citing the launch of the Federal Reserve's second round of quantitative easing. "The agency said the approval to raise the debt ceiling indicated that there will not be any positive changes in factors that will influence the...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Credit rating agency Moody's said Tuesday the United States will keep its sterling AAA credit rating for the time being, but lowered its outlook on U.S. debt to "negative."

(Reuters) - The United States' triple-A credit rating is likely to be affirmed by Moody's with a negative outlook, the ratings agency said on Friday, signaling that a downgrade would not come immediately, but possibly in the medium term.

<p>NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Amid the contentious debt ceiling debate, the United States is at risk of being booted out of a prestigious group of countries that boast a spotless credit rating.</p> <p>Only 17 countries in the world -- currently including the U.S. -- hold the highly coveted triple-A rating from both Standard & Poor's and Moody's. (S&P rates an additional three countries as triple-A, that aren't featured on Moody's list).</p>

To hear politicians, the fate of modern finance is now being decided by perhaps a dozen Manhattan bond geeks. Their job at Standard & Poor's and Moody's is to paste letter grades on governments so bond buyers can decide which are good for the money. Even America's president fears them. "A six-month extension of the debt ceiling might not be enough to avoid a credit downgrade," he warned the nation in an address Monday night, having already listed some of the consequences: "Interest rates would skyrocket on credit cards, on mortgages and on car loans." Given that Treasury bonds have...