In a perfect example of the incompetent blasting the incompetent Moody’s is criticizing S&P, Fitch, DBRS Ltd. and Kroll for their ratings in a CMBS transaction. Moody’s and S&P have absolutely horrendous ratings records stemming from the Financial Crisis, where for greed of fees they consistently rated securities AAA that ended up being pure junk. At every opportunity these companies throw gasoline on fires for sovereign debt etc., when it is actually too late to have helped investors buying the debt. I don’t view any of these ratings agencies as being better than the other as the whole industry needs to have their incentives changed in a dramatic way. Ratings should be paid for by the buyers and in my opinion few sophisticated buyers would see the value in paying for their ratings. It might make more sense if the bond ratings agencies put 50% of their fees into the transactions as a show of faith in their ratings.
INVESTING IN THE FINANCIAL MARKETS INVOLVES RISKS. OPTIONS ARE NOT SUITABLE FOR ALL INVESTORS.