Moody's Case Study

1158 Words3 Pages

Originated by John Moody in 1909, the Moody’s rating system provides investors with grades to evaluate the creditworthiness of securities to sell to investors. Like we discussed in class, there are nine grades that range from least risky to most risky (“Ratings Definitions,” 2014). Prior to late 2007, Moody’s was a highly trusted rating company. In December 2007, the U.S. entered the third longest recession in its history. According to Britannica, the crisis in the American housing market eventually caused the entire economy to collapse. Mortgage dealers issued mortgages to unqualified families with unfavorable terms (Havermann, n.d.). Companies like Moody’s came into the picture when it was time to rate these mortgage-backed securities. If housing prices continued to rise, …show more content…

Moody’s went so far as to promote those employees that gave the highest ratings to the most securities and reprimand those that questioned the legality and ethics behind the new structure (Hall, 2009). According to Mark Froeba, senior vice president of Moody’s structured finance group, Moody’s (the spinoff of Dun & Bradstreet) began in 2000, and from day one, its goal was to switch the culture from a conservative, accuracy and quality based culture to a business-friendly, dishonest culture (Hall, 2009). It is not uncommon for ratings to change over time, but it is uncommon for AAA ratings to switch to junk the next day. Moody’s profits soared from 2000-2006 because it would rate the securities how investment banks wanted to see them, and most were backed by the unfavorable mortgages (Hall, 2009). As a consequence of the subprime market collapsing, credit rating agencies, such as Moody’s, were required to downgrade many of the high-risk home loan securities (Levin, n.d.). This was a major shock to the global financial

Open Document