The big rating agencies are no longer very useful to investment companies such as the world's biggest bond fund manager PIMCO, which can be nimbler in anticipating shifts in the credit quality of debt, the company said on Wednesday. Analysts have blamed rating companies, such as Standard & Poor's, Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings for contributing to the financial crisis by assigning top ratings to securities linked to mortgages. The credit rating agencies "no longer serve a valid purpose for investment companies free of regulatory mandates," wrote Pacific Investment Management Co.'s managing director Bill Gross in a May Investment Outlook on the company's Web site.

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