Québec Droite

On a la preuve aujourd’hui que ces agences ne furent pas toutes blanches lors de la crise des subprimes. En effet, elles avaient pour mission de noter les CDO (collateralised debt obligation) : ce sont des produits financiers qui détiennent plusieurs titres, dont les titres pourris liés aux crédits hypothécaires irremboursables. Ces produits créés de toute pièce ne correspondaient à rien sur l’échelle de notation mais eurent tout de même la meilleure note (AAA). Faut-il y voir une pression des banques ?

Ainsi les banques et les agences de notations ont induit en erreur des milliers d’investisseurs qui, se fiant à la sacro-sainte échelle de notation, étaient persuadés de faire une bonne affaire… on sait ce que la crise des subprimes a causé comme dégâts.

Lors de la crise des subprimes la Commission d’enquêtes du Sénat aux États Unis a démontré qu’il y avait une collusion entre la banque Lehman et Standard sur la notation de dérivés immobiliers, largement sur notés par rapport à leur valeur. Et cela a été prouvé par des échanges de mail, de coups de téléphone qu’aussi bien la direction de l’agence que la direction de la banque était au courant.

Lectures complémentaires :

Extrait de: Do credit rating agencies have a conflict of interest ?, PHILIP ALEXIOU, Philip Alexiou, NewRoom Jersey, 01 June 2010

The primary credit rating agencies are Moody's Investors Service, Standard and Poor's, and Fitch Ratings. They rate the financial strength and credit worthiness of investments, examining a company or government's ability to make payments on bonds and other debts. The rating is similar to the credit score for someone who might apply for a loan to buy a house.

Michael Robinson summarizes it this way: "As an investment bank, you want high rated products. Because the higher the rating the product, two things. One, you can charge more for it, and two, more people can buy it."

These rating agencies have been around for over a hundred years. They began by publishing information about stocks, bonds and other investments and selling their findings independently. Over time, the findings became so valued and influential that municipalities and financial institutions could not sell their bonds or securities if they did not have the highest ratings.

"These ratings are required often by law for mutual funds or pension funds to purchase these bonds," says Morici. "As a consequence, they really are essential."

But these agencies, which make hundreds of millions of dollars a year, have been getting paid by the very institutions they rate. And the University of Maryland's Peter Morici says therein lies the problem.

"For example, the Ohio water authority issues bonds. And Moody's comes along and says, 'We'd like to rate it. And if you don't pay us to rate it, we'll rate it on our own.' Would you rather have a rating agency that you commission, or one that goes into business for itself?"

Investors trusted the credit rating agencies before the 2008 U.S. financial crisis. Today, the reputation of those agencies is damaged, and the way they do business has come under scrutiny.

"They had always in their defense, and they did screw up, they always had held themselves up as providers of opinion, and said these are opinions, not certainty," says John Berlau of the Competative Enterprise Institute. "The law gave them this official status wrongly and that exacerbated the problem of over reliance on them, rather than investors doing their own due diligence."

Pending U.S. legislation removes a conflict of interest between the rating agencies and those that they rate, by creating a Credit Rating Agency Bureau within the Securities and Exchange Commission to assign ratings contracts. Financial institutions would no longer be able to choose which agency rates their products

Extrait de : Case Study 4 Major Investment Bank Failures In 2008-2009 Debt Crisis

When major Wall Street firms suffered deteriorating finances, you could have played a role in warning the public of those failures. Instead, it appears you chose not to:

·         Bear Stearns failure: On the day of the failure, March 14, 2008, Moody’s maintained a rating for Bear Stearns of A2, the same rating it had published from June 1995 through June 2003; S&P was equally generous, giving the firm an A rating until the day of failure; and Fitch had assigned Bear Stearns an A+ rating throughout the 18-year period between February 2, 1990 the failure date.

·         Lehman Brothers failure: On the morning of the failure, Moody’s still gave Lehman Brothers a rating of A2; S&P gave it an A; and Fitch gave it an A+.

·         We witnessed a similar pattern of complacency with the failures of New Century Financial, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2007; Countrywide Financial, which was bought out by Bank of America in 2008; Washington Mutual, which filed for bankruptcy in September of that year; and Wachovia Bank, which was acquired by Wells Fargo by year-end 2008

Cahier spéciale : Agences de notation

Table des matières :

Les agences de notation : La terreur des pays souverains qui sont surendettés

Introduction

Situation

Historique

Conflit

A. Conflit d’intérêt avec les entreprises

B. Conflit d’intérêt avec les banques

     Crise immobilière

C. Conflit avec les États souverains

Notation des États Souverains

Les critères des agences de notations pour les pays souverains

Les conséquences d’une décote d’un pays souverain

Dagong Global Credit Rating, une agence chinoise

Mauvaise régulation

Les agences de notation complices de la spéculation

Le Québec selon las paramètres des agences de notation

A. La dette du Québec selon le PIB        

B. Le déficit budgétaire / dépenses budgétaires du Québec

C. La dette brute / sur les revenus

Conclusion

Les conséquences d’une décote sur le Québec

Historique de la notation du Portugal

La situation au Portugal

Les conséquences des taux d’emprunt face à une décote

Simulations une décote de 2 crans pour le Québec

Leurs imputabilités

Balles III

Mais elles ne règles pas les problèmes fondamentaux

Autres solutions

Mais qui a assez de courage pour modifier les agences

Titrisation et crise financière : complice, pas coupable

La crise financière de 2007-2008: réflexions

Source de référence

Format PDF : Les agences de notation : La terreur des pays souverains qui sont surendettés