Tag Archives: SEC

SEC To Focus on Structured Finance Ratings

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A SEC staff study looks at three ways to reform the manner in which ratings are produced for structured finance securities.

The study, required by Dodd-Frank, addresses

(1) The credit rating process for structured finance products and the conflicts of interest associated with the issuer-pay and the subscriber-pay models;

(2) The feasibility of establishing a system in which a public or private utility or a self-regulatory organization (“SRO”) assigns NRSROs to determine the credit ratings for structured finance products, including:

(a) An assessment of potential mechanisms for determining fees for NRSROs for rating structured finance products;
(b) Appropriate methods for paying fees to NRSROs to rate structured finance products;
(c) The extent to which the creation of such a system would be viewed as the creation of moral hazard by the Federal Government; and

(d) Any constitutional or other issues concerning the establishment of such a system;5

(3) The range of metrics that could be used to determine the accuracy of credit ratings for structured finance products;6 and
(4) Alternative means for compensating NRSROs that would create incentives for accurate credit ratings for structured finance products.

 

SEC 2012 Report on NRSROs

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This SEC staff report has some interesting findings that relate to asset-backed securitizations.  Highlights include

  • The pie charts on page 6 that indicate the overall market share of NRSROs as well as their share by sector.  It is interesting to see that Fitch does significantly better rating Asset-Backed Securities (20%) than it does overall (13%).
  • “In some structured finance rating files, the Staff found incomplete rating recommendations relating to the final tranches and were unable to ascertain what the committee ultimately approved. In some instances, there was no rationale recorded for why the final rating recommendation deviated from the original.” (14)
  • “The Staff found that [one large] NRSRO placed certain European residential mortgage-backed securities tranches on watch for potential downgrades for over two years and failed to review the watch within the timetable specified in its policies. In doing so, the NRSRO failed to follow its policies and procedures with regard to the use of rating watch status and the timeliness of reviews conducted on the rating watch status. The NRSRO also failed to apply new criteria to these transactions within the time period required by its policies.”  (13)