Abstract
G20 Leaders in Los Cabos called for accelerated progress by national authorities and standard setting bodies in ending the mechanistic reliance on credit ratings, and encouraged steps that would enhance transparency of and competition among CRAs. Based on the findings from the interim peer review report on reducing reliance on CRA ratings, almost all FSB member jurisdictions have conducted the requested stock-taking of references to CRA ratings in national authorities’ laws and regulations and of actions taken and underway to reduce these references. Such a stock-taking exercise is an essential precondition for the removal of hard-wired references to CRA ratings in laws and regulations. Standard-setting bodies continue to work to reduce references to CRA ratings in international standards and to encourage reduced reliance on CRA ratings by authorities and market participants.Among the various financial regulatory standards, the greatest existing use of CRA ratings is in the Basel capital and liquidity standards, and accordingly the BCBS is the standard-setting body with the most substantial work programme to find ways to reduce such references. With regard to competition, the historic dominance by three globally active CRAs that use the issuer-pays model continues. Whether the smaller and new-entrant CRAs succeed in competing with the three largest CRAs in large part depends on convincing investors that their credit ratings are of high quality, which, in turn, will incentivise issuers to hire them.