Free Republic

Plans to launch an independent European credit agency have fallen apart after it failed to generate enough interest in the business world. After three years of efforts, its co-founder renounced the plans, in an interview with the German daily Handelsblatt on Tuesday (30 April). “There were not enough investors,” Markus Krull, a former senior partner in the German-based consultancy firm Roland Berger, told the daily in an interview. … Krull envisioned an agency that would compete with the US-based equivalent Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch. All three US-based agencies work on a for-profit basis that Krull wanted to challenge...

Study Finds Flawed Practices at Ratings Firms By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM The analyst at the credit ratings agency was blunt: “Let’s hope we are all wealthy and retired by the time this house of cards falters.” That candid assessment, sent by e-mail to a colleague in December 2006, referred to the market for certain investments linked to subprime mortgages — investments that were assigned top AAA ratings from major agencies, only to later plummet in value. That e-mail message and dozens like it were disclosed Tuesday in a blistering 37-page report issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which confirmed...