McGraw Hill Financial Inc.’s Standard & Poor’s unit lost its bid to consolidate state claims that it lied about the objectivity of its ratings in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis, forcing it to fight lawsuits in 18 state courts, Bloomberg News reported today. U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman in Manhattan ruled the suits were properly filed in state courts under local consumer-protection laws. S&P argued federal laws should govern the claims. Most of the state lawsuits were filed last year, after the U.S. Justice Department sued New York-based S&P for allegedly defrauding investors that relied on its ratings of residential mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations. The U.S. has said that it may seek as much as $5 billion.
