On November 21, 2009
Underrated: S&P, Moody’s, Fitch … and PIMCO
It’s been a tough week for the big three rating agencies: Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s Investors Service, and Fitch Ratings, which seem to be following in the footsteps of the big three auto makers. First the National Association of Insurance Commissioners put up a “No Help Wanted” sign; at least as far as they were concerned. After a semi-secret bidding contest, the NAIC announced that it had anointed PIMCO, the big bond firm with more than $900 billion under management, as the arbiter of value for more than $145 billion of residential mortgage-backed securities that insurers hold in their portfolios. To make matters worse, yesterday Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray slammed the three big raters with a lawsuit, charging them with…
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