Word: issuers
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...center of the conversation is how ratings agencies get paid. Since the 1970s, the largest ratings agencies have been paid by the companies that issue bonds or securities. This "issuer-pay" model has been roundly criticized for leading the agencies to cozy up to the firms creating financial products - especially the complex ones - by assigning ratings that are more favorable than justified in order to hold on to the business. At the beginning of 2008, there were just 12 top-rated companies in the world, but some 64,000 structured finance instruments, like mortgage-related CDOs, won that seal...
Thousands have since been downgraded. "We need to consider alternatives to the issuer-pay model," SEC commissioner Elisse Walter said in a speech in March. One idea: level the playing field so that new competitors, like smaller agencies that charge investors instead of issuers, can better compete. Another option: a tax on investors, issuers or even the public at large in order to create a central pool of money with which to buy ratings to be made public. (See the best business deals...
...collateral, that proves that it can make some payoff when needed. There was often little or no collateral required for CDSs. The obvious problem is that in an unforeseen catastrophe, the insurer may not be able to honor its commitment. Therefore, the CDS buyer must totally trust that the issuer is good for the money...
...traders would have to begin denominating transactions in SDRs instead of dollars, and there is no sign of that happening anytime soon. Portes of the London Business School says using SDRs as the top international currency is "not impossible," but he adds that "the fundamental problem is that the issuer of the [international] currency also has to be the lender of last resort. The IMF does not have the legitimacy to do that...
...post, Schapiro said, "I'm not sure if it's enough, to be perfectly honest." On April 15, the SEC will hold a roundtable, to hear from the ratings firms about what they have done to improve things on their own, and also from people who think the entire issuer-pays model needs to be scrapped. "There have been some very thoughtful proposals out there, and we've invited those people to come and speak," Schapiro told Congress. (See "Business Bucking the Recession...