NEW YORK — Ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service is downgrading the credit ratings for 13 Italian banks.
NEW YORK — Ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service is downgrading the credit ratings for 13 Italian banks.
The government’s lower rating means Moody’s believes it is at greater risk of defaulting on its debts and “indicates a similarly increased risk that the government might be unable to provide financial support to its banks in financial distress.”
Moody’s says fragile market confidence and financial problems in Greece and Spain have increased the risks Italy faces.
Moody’s Investors Service is downgrading six of Canada’s major financial institutions on concerns over high levels of consumer debt among Canadians and elevated house prices.
Trying to get ahead of a potentially explosive story, credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s announced Monday that the Justice Department had informed the company that it’s the subject of a civil lawsuit for the AAA ratings it gave to complex bonds in 2007 that later turned out to be junk.
Here is the basis of the case the U.S. government is making against Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services in a 128-page lawsuit:
The Justice Department’s filing of a multi-billion-dollar fraud lawsuit against the Standard & Poor’s rating agency this week culminates a massive, multi-year federal investigation code-named “Alchemy,” but it’s only the start of a more public legal battle joined by at least 16 state attorneys general.
When does a city trumpet a credit ratings downgrade? After digging itself out of a $63 million budget hole, that’s when.
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