McGraw Hill Financial Inc. and Standard & Poor’s are asking a panel of judges to pack up 15 state lawsuits in which they’re accused of inflating securities ratings and ship them to New York where the companies are based, Bloomberg News reported today. Lawyers for S&P and its corporate parent are scheduled to argue for the transfer today before the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation at a hearing in federal court in Louisville, Ky. Most of the states sued in February in conjunction with a U.S. complaint filed in Los Angeles federal court that alleges S&P downplayed risks associated with the mortgage-backed securities to increase its revenue and market share.
