Lawmakers Blast Rating Agencies for Role in Financial Crisis

By Karey Wutkowski and Rachelle Youngla
Reuters News Agency

The top executive of Moody's warned his board in 2007 that the quality of credit ratings was in danger due to trends that could "place the entire financial system at risk." The confidential briefing was among documents obtained by congressional investigators for a hearing Wednesday into the role of rating agencies in the worst economic crisis since the 1930s. Executives of Moody's Corp., McGraw-Hill Cos Inc.'s Standard & Poor's, and Fimalac SA'sFitch Ratings were blasted by lawmakers for giving high ratings to mortgage-linked securities, which later collapsed in value and helped spread chaos through the global financial system.

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