S&P Publishes Advance Notice Of Proposed Change Locals’ GO Ratings

NEW YORK — Standard & Poor's Ratings Services Friday published an advance notice of proposed criteria change for local general obligation bonds.

Standard & Poor's said it is in the process of reviewing its criteria for U.S. local government issuer credit ratings and issue ratings on general obligation (GO) bonds issued by municipal governments that are not special purpose districts. Examples of local government entities included in the scope are cities, counties, towns, villages, townships, and boroughs. Examples of special purpose districts excluded from the scope are school districts, library districts, park districts, and forest preserve districts, among others. The criteria also do not apply to U.S. states.

The primary purpose of the review is to increase transparency as to how U.S. local government GO ratings are derived and enhance the comparability of U.S. public finance GO ratings with other sectors.

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