Debt raters failed to follow their own methodologies, let senior credit officers view market-share data and allowed a trade group to affect criteria changes, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission report, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The SEC’s Office of Credit Ratings didn’t name specific companies in its fourth annual examination released yesterday, which looked at practices in 2013. The report refers to the raters as either larger firms, such as McGraw Hill Financial Inc.’s Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s Corp.’s Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings, or smaller ones, including DBRS Inc. The regulator also didn’t identify firms in prior reports. One large company and four smaller firms didn’t follow their own methodologies in determining ratings, the SEC said in its report on Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations.
