The Law and Regulation of Credit Rating Agencies in the EU and US is a practical book that sets out and compares and contrasts the EU and US regulatory responses to Credit Rating Agencies (CRAs). It takes into account very recent regulatory initiatives and simultaneously drawing matters of interest to practitioners regarding the practice of CRAs as well as the wider implications of CRA regulations to the financial services market. It will provide an outline of what CRAs actually do and serve as a practical, comprehensive desk top reference for those working directly in the financial services sector internationally.

Contents includes: Introduction: How and Where It All began; The Practice of Credit Ratings: Why Credit Ratings; Types of Credit Ratings; Reading Credit Rating Scales; The Credit Ratings Market; The Three Dominant Global CRAs and the Implications of Market Concentration; The Rating Process: Best Practices and Problems; The Regulatory Environment: The Free Market Era; Nature and Characteristics of the IOSCO Code; The Pros and Cons of Using the IOSCO Code; The Dawn of Co-Regulation: Enron 2002 and the Rise of Co-Regulation in the US; Co-Regulation in the US (IOSCO Code and US CRA 2006); Co-Regulation in the EU (IOSCO Code and EU 2009 Act); What is the Difference?; The Rise of Enhanced Regulation: The Links of CRAs to the 2007/08GFC: Blameworthiness; US Regulatory Response: The 2010 Dodd-Frank Act on CRAs; The Links of CRAs to the 2011/12 European Financial Crisis (EFC); EU Regulatory Response: 2010 Amendments to 2009 EU Act and 2011 EU Commission's Proposals; What is the Difference?;CRA Regulatory Developments: Insights and Lessons from the US Experience; Insights and Lessons from the EU Experience; Potential for Cross-Fertilisation of Experiences; Conclusions: From Vanilla Bond Ratings to Complex Financial Products' Ratings and Sovereign Credit; Ratings; From Competition to Conflicts of Interest; From Hands-Off Approach to Focused Regulatory Intervention; What of the Future of Regulatory Intervention in the US and the EU?