International rating Agency Standard & Poor's in talks with US authorities about the settlement of claims related to a possible overestimation of the ratings of a number of mortgage-backed securities in the period before the financial crisis.
Law enforcement agencies require the Agency to pay the discussion of agreements over $1 billion.
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Joey Books
Why isn't this bigger news and on the front page of the newspaper? S&P was a major guilty party that contributed to the the great recession with all of the bundles toxic sub-prime mortgages with false AAA ratings. They committed fraud among many other offenses. The federal governments response? All guilty parties get fined and carry on with business as usual. Chalk it up to the cost of doing business. I'm still waiting for an actual deterrent to ensure this catastrophe does not repeat itself..
Craig Wellman
I have no objection to the Justice Dept. lawsuit, but if it is not retaliation against S&P for downgrading Treasury's debt, why are there not identical lawsuits against Fitch and Moody? As I understand it, they also issued high ratings for packages of mortgage debt.
