Credit raters could catch a break in Wall St bill

[depakid]

Source: Reuters

Embattled credit-rating agencies like Moody's Corp and Standard & Poor's could catch a break on Tuesday when U.S. lawmakers sit down to craft a final rewrite of financial regulations. The legislation as it stands would effectively upend the entire industry's business model, but lawmakers from the Senate and the House of Representatives could strip that provision as they begin resolving differences between their two Wall Street reform bills.

Democrats in charge of the process say there are relatively few differences between their two bills, which both aim to avoid a repeat of the financial crisis that plunged the world economy into a deep recession and led to massive taxpayer bailouts of Wall Street firms. They plan to postpone the most contentious issues, such as how to regulate derivatives, until the end of the two-week process they began Thursday with opening statements. Still, they will face billion-dollar decisions when they meet at 11 a.m. (1500 GMT) for their first full day of work.

The credit-rating industry has been widely criticized for assigning rosy ratings to dubious debt offerings that imploded and brought Wall Street to its knees during the 2007-2009 financial crisis. The Senate's bill, passed last month, would set up a new government panel to eliminate perceived conflicts of interest. But Representative Barney Frank, who heads the House-Senate conference committee, is instead pressing for a one-year study of the issue by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

That would allow credit raters to continue soliciting business directly from the businesses, municipalities and other issuers' offerings which they assess. A spokeswoman for Democratic Senator Al Franken, sponsor of the original proposal, called Frank's counter-proposal "very concerning."

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1422529920100615

[Capitalocracy]

1. Oh, Barney. Oh, Barney, Barney, Barney.

:shrug:

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[Hubert Flottz]

2. "catch a break"

Give me a f***ing break!

[Po_d Mainiac]

3. Yo, Barney

Remove the exemption from liability bestowed upon the big three and this would be a case where the markets (and litigation attorneys) would clean up the mess.

[No Elephants]

4. Frank also said he did not foresee that credit card issuers would use the time he gave them to raise

rates and fees and change credit card terms to the detriment off users.

Seriously?