24/7 Newsfeed

Put Reason 24/7 on Your Site

RSS

Follow Reason 24/7 on Twitter and via RSS

Feds Plan Lawsuit Against S&P over Mortgage Ratings

Credit rater Standard & Poor's announced Monday that the Justice Department plans to file civil charges against it for its rating of mortgage-backed financial products leading up to the financial crisis.

In a statement, S&P acknowledged that it missed the mark in many of its ratings before the crisis, but said such a suit would be "entirely without factual or legal merit."

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that the federal enforcement action, the first of its kind against a credit rater for actions tied to the meltdown, could come as soon as this week. The civil charges would come after the Justice Department and S&P failed to strike a deal in long-running settlement talks.

Several state attorneys general are expected to join the case.

Source: The Hill. Read full article. (link)

Editor's Note: We invite comments and request that they be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of Reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment for any reason at any time.

advertisement