European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services, Michel Barnier, shares his thoughts on Credit Rating Agencies with John Rega, Chief Correspondent MLex FS.

Commissioner Barnier talks about the proposal to suspend rating for governments if they are in financial assistance programs, in order to avoid adding instability at a moment when such countries start implementing reforms.

According to Barnier, there should be better guarantees that safeguard the transparency of rating agencies when it regards sovereign debt. More effort should go into creating transparency by publishing rating reports and explaining the coming about of such ratings. The Commissioner sees a strong role for the ESMA, the European Securities and Markets Authority, in this area.

December 7, 2011

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