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Climate change could put Bermuda at risk of greater economic damage and dent its sovereign credit rating more than many countries and islands. That is the finding of a speculative report by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services. Using direct damage data from Swiss Re, the agency estimated the possible adverse effect of climate change on 38 countries. It based its measurements on the expectation of a once-in-250-year natural catastrophe event striking, and the impact being exacerbated a further 20 per cent to represent the magnified additional damage expected to be inflicted due to climate change. Projected out 35 years to...

Hardball: Hell hath no fury like an administration embarrassed by a top credit-rating agency stating the obvious — that its perilous spending policies and rising debts warranted a downgrade just like any poorly run business. Speaking at a fundraiser in Philadelphia on June 13, 2008, candidate Barack Obama said of his Republican opposition: "If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun." In this case, in August 2011, Standard & Poor's brought an embarrassing downgrading of U.S. debt to AA+ from AAA in advance of the president's re-election bid, the first such reduction in U.S. history. In...

If anyone thinks "Bridgegate" is an example of political bullying and abuse of power, then the sworn (under penalty of perjury) allegation of a corporate heavy hitter against Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner is off the charts. Bloomberg Businessweek reports: Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told McGraw Hill Financial Inc. Chairman Harold W. McGraw III in 2011 that Standard & Poor's downgrade of the U.S. debt would be met by a response, S&P said. S&P filed a declaration by McGraw yesterday in federal court in Santa Ana, California, as part of a request to force the U.S. to...

The list of eurozone countries with immaculate credit ratings took another hit this week. On Friday morning, Standard & Poor’s (S&P) removed the Netherlands’ top rating, downgrading the country to AA+. This leaves only three countries in the common currency area with the best grade of AAA: Finland, Luxembourg and Germany. Two years ago, six countries still had that rating. … Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who is also president of the Euro Group, recently announced that his country would violate the European Commission’s deficit rules despite an additional €6 billion ($8.16 billion) austerity package. … Like Germany, the Netherlands...

<p>Standard & Poor's Ratings Services escalated its legal battle with the U.S. Justice Department, accusing it of filing its $5 billion lawsuit against S&P in "retaliation" for the company's downgrade of America's debt in 2011.</p> <p>S&P's defense, made in a court filing on Tuesday, shows that the world's largest credit-rating company is digging in as it fights the Justice Department's Feb. 4 lawsuit, which accused S&P of misrepresenting its rating process in the years before the financial crisis.</p>

France and Austria lost their triple-A credit ratings yesterday evening—an ill-starred Friday 13th January—as seven other eurozone countries were also downgraded by US-based credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P). The move was described by European leaders as “political” and “inconsistent”, and China claimed the move cast doubt on the credibility of credit ratings agencies. The two triple-A economies were nudged down one notch by S&P, to AA+, but retain top AAA rating from the other two main ratings agencies, Moody's and Fitch. Two notches were struck from the ratings of Italy (to BBB+), Spain (to A), Cyprus (to BB+)...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Another trading day and another low for Bank of America's stock. Shares of Bank of America dropped more than 3% Tuesday, hitting a new 52-week low of $5.03 -- its lowest level since March 12, 2009. After the close of trading Tuesday, Bank of America was one of 37 financial institutions downgraded by S&P. Beyond the S&P downgrade, trading could become even more complicated in Bank of America's stock, if it falls below $5. Under that threshold, many broker-dealers will not allow investors to buy or short a stock on margin, according to a spokesperson for...

France is still a triple-A rated country—but it has a fight on its hands to convince markets. President Nicolas Sarkozy broke off his vacation Wednesday and summoned ministers to Paris to discuss how to achieve "imperative" deficit-reduction targets. But that couldn't prevent a worrying slide in French bank shares, not least because France's fate is only partly in its own hands. The market has effectively downgraded French debt already. The spread between 10-year French government bonds and German bunds has widened to 0.85 percentage point this week, three times wider than a year ago. Some of this is down to...

In the coming days we’ll sort through the repercussions of S&P’s downgrade of our credit rating, including concerns about the impact a potential interest rate increase would have on our ability to service our suffocating $14.5 trillion debt. I’m surprised that so many people seem surprised by S&P’s decision. Weren’t people paying attention over the last year or so when we were getting warning after warning from various credit rating agencies that this was coming? I’ve been writing and speaking about it myself for quite some time.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Does anybody now doubt that this is on purpose? I mean, after all, Barack Obama inherits a AAA credit rating from George W. Bush, and look what he does to it. Obama is always running around complaining and whining and moaning about all that he inherited from George W. Bush. Well, he inherited a AAA credit rating, an unemployment rate of 5.7%. Does anybody doubt that this is on purpose? Well, look, my credit rating doesn't suck. There are a lot of individual Americans whose credit ratings aren't in trouble. The United States has never been in...

S&P's Beers: We Don't Have a Hit List Published: Sunday, 7 Aug 2011 | 8:58 PM ET By: Deepanshu Bagchee Supervising Digital Editor, CNBC Asia After Standard and Poor's historic downgrade of the U.S.'s credit rating to AA-plus from triple-A, fears are growing that other countries may be next, most notably France, which is facing big costs from a bailout of troubled Euro zone countries. But the global head of sovereign ratings at S&P says the agency does not have a target list and will downgrade ratings as and when it sees deteriorating economic performance or debt burdens. "We don't...

The day after Standard & Poor’s took the unprecedented step of stripping the United States government of its top credit rating, the ratings agency offered a full-throated defense of its decision, calling the bitter stand-off between President Obama and Congress over raising the debt ceiling a “debacle.” It warned that further downgrades may lie ahead. In an unusual Saturday conference call with reporters, senior S.& P. officials insisted the ratings firm hadn’t overstepped its bounds by focusing on the political paralysis in Washington as much as fiscal policy in determining the new rating. “The debacle over the debt ceiling continued...

One day after lowering the nation’s platinum triple-A credit rating, Standard & Poor’s analysts warned Saturday that the U.S. government could face a second downgrade if the economy continues to struggle and the government fails to make the cuts outlined in the debt ceiling agreement. The ratings agency on Friday downgraded the nation to AA+ for the first time in history, saying partisanship in Washington is preventing dramatic deficit reduction.

The frustration in the air was palpable. Officials from the credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s were meeting with Congressional leaders on a stifling late day in late July to discuss the thorniest issue in Washington: the effort to cut the nation’s deficit and raise the borrowing limit to avert a default. S.& P. and two financial industry groups listened to various proposals for debt reduction and warned the lawmakers of the impact a default would have on world markets, according to a Congressional staff member in attendance. The staff member said the agency was providing guidance on what target...

Everyone knew this one was coming. Finally, it happened. For the first time in American history, Standard and Poor's (S&P), one of the leading companies in financial research and analysis on stocks and bonds, downgraded the US from a top credit rating of AAA to AA. This means that US Treasury debt is no longer considered the safest in the world. There are thirteen countries that have a AAA credit rating: Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, Finland, France, and the United Kingdom.S&P predicts that it will take a long time for the US to...

As lawmakers scramble to cut a budget deal and avoid defaulting on U.S. debt, the head of a top Chinese rating agency claims it's too late. Guan Jianzhong, president of Dagong Global Credit Rating Co. Ltd., reportedly told state media that the United States has already defaulted by letting the U.S. dollar weaken. "In our opinion, the United States has already been defaulting," Guan was quoted as saying, according to AFP. China, likewise, has long come under criticism for allowing its currency to weaken. But while Dagong Global is known for being tough on the U.S., Guan's words carry extra...

S&P downgrades Ambac again Shares slump, but rebound in late trading on CDO commutation By Alistair Barr, MarketWatch Last update: 7:01 p.m. EST Nov. 19, 2008 SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Standard & Poor's said Wednesday that it downgraded Ambac Financial and the company's main bond insurance unit because the rating agency expects more losses from guarantees of mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations. S&P downgraded the senior debt of Ambac Financial (ABK AMBAC Inc) to BBB from A. It also cut Ambac Assurance Corp., the bond insurance subsidiary, to A from AA. The outlook is negative. "The company's exposures in...

Wall Street firm chops California's credit rating DON THOMPSON, Associated Press Writer Thursday, July 24, 2003 ©2003 Associated Press URL: http://sfchronicle.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2003/07/24/financial2126EDT0265.DTL (07-24) 18:26 PDT SACRAMENTO (AP) -- SACRAMENTO (AP) -- California's credit rating, already the worst in the nation, was lowered to near junk bond status Thursday by one of the nation's top credit agencies. Standard & Poor's cited the state's pending gubernatorial recall election and delays in adopting a new state budget to trim a record $38 billion deficit. But the announcement came as Senate leaders announced a budget agreement that would cut the deficit to about $8 billion...

NEW YORK (CBS.MW) - AOL Time Warner shares fell 5 percent in the after-hours market Friday after Standard & Poor's said that it has revised its outlook for the company from "stable" to "negative." The ratings service didn't, however, change the media giant's credit rating of "BBB+." A spokesman for S&P said that "deteriorating ad sales" could result in "weaker credit measures" and that the Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry could consume management's attention "as it strives to stabilize operating performance." On Thursday, concerns over the SEC's investigation into the media giant's accounting practices pushed shares as low as $8.70....