Treasury Bill Targets Credit Raters

The Treasury Department sent lawmakers draft legislation Tuesday to regulate credit rating agencies.

Under the proposal, credit rating agencies would be barred from selling consulting services to companies they also rate and would be required to disclose any conflicts of interest. To target rating shopping, an issuer would be required to disclose all the preliminary ratings it has received from different credit rating agencies. And agencies would be required to disclose more of the risks, both qualitative and quantitative, involved in any security.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
MORE FROM AMERICAN BANKER