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Faith-Based Financial Regulation: A Primer On Oversight Of Credit Rating Organizations, Christopher L. Sagers, Thomas J. Fitzpatrick

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

In light of the present economic crisis and their role in it, the world seems suddenly keen to know more about the handful of private corporations--variously known as bond rating agencies, credit rating agencies, credit rating organizations (CROs), or the like--that rate the creditworthiness of corporate and government debt securities. By most accounts, these companies hold extensive sway in public capital markets, and for about thirty years, a few of them have enjoyed literally de jure delegation of federal regulatory oversight over much of the U.S. financial sector. With that power their ratings have value regardless of their accuracy, and …