SEC Names Panelists, Agenda for Upcoming Rating Agency Roundtable

WASHINGTON - The Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday announced panelists and the agenda for its April 15 roundtable on how to improve federal oversight and regulation of the credit rating agencies.

The roundtable, which will include four panels over about six hours, comes as the SEC is considering addressing, through rulemaking, perceived conflicts of interest that are embedded in the issuer-pays model adopted by the three major agencies - a model that is believed to have played a large role in spurring the financial crisis. SEC chairman Mary Schapiro said at a confirmation hearing in January that the model is "at the heart of the conflict problem."

In a statement yesterday, Schapiro said that the roundtable "will thoroughly review relevant aspects of regulating credit rating agencies."

"Insight from leading experts of credit rating agencies and the financial markets will assist the commission as it continues to pursue aggressive oversight of the industry," she said.

The first panel will include top officials from the three major rating agencies - Fitch Ratings, Moody's Investor Service, and Standard & Poor's - as well as the heads of two smaller ratings firms - DBRS and Egan-Jones Ratings. They will address what went wrong with the ratings process and the corrective steps being taken by the industry.

Another panel, on the current barriers to entering the credit rating agency industry, will feature several academics and market participants.

A third panel will cover users' perspectives, and will include representatives of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, the Investment Company Institute, the Association of Financial Guaranty Insurers, and other groups.

The final panel will address approaches to improve credit rating agency oversight and will feature representatives of the European Commission and the Group of Thirty of financiers and academics.

Erik Sirri, director of the SEC's division of trading and markets will provide concluding remarks.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
Bankruptcy
MORE FROM BOND BUYER