The major credit rating agencies have been widely criticized for their role in the international bust and liquidity panic in the markets for structured mortgages and other complex securities. Critics continue to question the effectiveness of rating agency performance, incentives, and oversight. Currently, numerous regulations mandate that investors use credit...

The Securities and Exchange Commission should revise its certification standards to permit other qualified firms to become nationally recognized statistical rating organizations.

This testimony before Congress suggests ways the SEC could improve the competitiveness of credit rating agencies.

The outlook for the future structure of the credit rating agency sector improved greatly when the House passed the "The Credit Rating Agency Duopoly Relief Act."

Steps should be taken to increase competition in the rating industry, which would increase customer choice, price competition, innovation, and the analysis available to investors.

Canada's government-financing operation looks superior to the one in the United States in candor, as well as credit performance, as it achieves equivalent home ownership levels.

The SEC should revoke its requirement that Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations must make the records of their rating actions public.