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V. INFLATED CREDIT RATINGS: CASE STUDY OF MOODY's AND STANDARD & POOR's
A. Subcommittee Investigation and Findings of Fact
For more than one year, the Subcommittee conducted an in-depth investigation of the role of credit rating agencies in the financial crisis, using as case histories Moody's and S&P. The Subcommittee subpoenaed and reviewed hundreds of thousands of documents from both companies including reports, analyses, memoranda, correspondence, and email, as well as documents from a number of financial institutions that obtained ratings for RMBS and CDO securities. The Subcommittee also collected and reviewed documents from the SEC and reports produced by academics and government agencies on credit rating issues. In addition, the Subcommittee conducted nearly two dozen interviews with current and former Moody's and S&P executives, managers, and analysts, and consulted with credit rating experts from the SEC, Federal Reserve, academia, and industry. On April 23, 2010, the Subcommittee held a hearing and released 100 hearing exhibits. |956|
In connection with the hearing, the Subcommittee released a joint memorandum from Chairman Levin and Ranking Member Coburn summarizing the investigation into the credit rating agencies and the problems with the credit ratings assigned to RMBS and CDO securities. The memorandum contained joint findings regarding the role of the credit rating agencies in the Moody's and S&P case histories, which this Report reaffirms. The findings of fact are as follows.
1. Inaccurate Rating Models. From 2004 to 2007, Moody's and S&P used credit rating models with data that was inadequate to predict how high risk residential mortgages, such as subprime, interest only, and option adjustable rate mortgages, would perform.
2. Competitive Pressures. Competitive pressures, including the drive for market share and need to accommodate investment bankers bringing in business, affected the credit ratings issued by Moody's and S&P.
3. Failure to Re-evaluate. By 2006, Moody's and S&P knew their ratings of RMBS and CDOs were inaccurate, revised their rating models to produce more accurate ratings, but then failed to use the revised model to re-evaluate existing RMBS and CDO securities, delaying thousands of rating downgrades and allowing those securities to carry inflated ratings that could mislead investors.
4. Failure to Factor in Fraud, Laxity, or Housing Bubble. From 2004 to 2007, Moody's and S&P knew of increased credit risks due to mortgage fraud, lax underwriting standards, and unsustainable housing price appreciation, but failed adequately to incorporate those factors into their credit rating models.
5. Inadequate Resources. Despite record profits from 2004 to 2007, Moody's and S&P failed to assign sufficient resources to adequately rate new products and test the accuracy of existing ratings.
6. Mass Downgrades Shocked Market. Mass downgrades by Moody's and S&P, including downgrades of hundreds of subprime RMBS over a few days in July 2007, downgrades by Moody's of CDOs in October 2007, and actions taken (including downgrading and placing securities on credit watch with negative implications) by S&P on over 6,300 RMBS and 1,900 CDOs on one day in January 2008, shocked the financial markets, helped cause the collapse of the subprime secondary market, triggered sales of assets that had lost investment grade status, and damaged holdings of financial firms worldwide, contributing to the financial crisis.
7. Failed Ratings. Moody's and S&P each rated more than 10,000 RMBS securities from 2006 to 2007, downgraded a substantial number within a year, and, by 2010, had downgraded many AAA ratings to junk status.
8. Statutory Bar. The SEC is barred by statute from conducting needed oversight into the substance, procedures, and methodologies of the credit rating models.
9. Legal Pressure for AAA Ratings. Legal requirements that some regulated entities, such as banks, broker-dealers, insurance companies, pension funds, and others, hold assets with AAA or investment grade credit ratings, created pressure on credit rating agencies to issue inflated ratings making assets eligible for purchase by those entities.
Notes
956. "Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: The Role of Credit Rating Agencies," before the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, S.Hrg. 11- 673 (4/23/2010) (hereinafter "April 23, 2010 Subcommittee Hearing" ). [Back]
Back to Contents V. INFLATED CREDIT RATINGS: CASE STUDY OF MOODY's AND STANDARD & POOR's B. Background
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