News release: “The Securities and Exchange Commission today released findings from extensive 10-month examinations of three major credit rating agencies that uncovered significant weaknesses in ratings practices and the need for remedial action by the firms to provide meaningful ratings and the necessary levels of disclosure to investors.

Under new statutory authority from Congress that enabled the SEC to register and examine credit rating agencies, the agency’s staff conducted examinations of Fitch Ratings Ltd., Moody’s Investor Services Inc., and Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services to evaluate whether they are adhering to their published methodologies for determining ratings and managing conflicts of interest. With the recent subprime market turmoil, the SEC has been particularly interested in the rating agencies’ policies and practices in rating mortgage-backed securities and the impartiality of their ratings…

The Summary Report of Issues Identified in the Commission Staff’s Examinations of Select Credit Rating Agencies describes the significant weaknesses in the rating agencies’ processes in rating subprime RMBS and CDOs linked to subprime residential mortgage-backed securities from January 2004 to the present.”