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Who are the credit ratings agencies?
The “big three” are Standard’s & Poor’s, Moody’s Investor Services and Fitch Ratings. All originated in the United States, although Fitch has dual headquarters in New York and London.
What do they do?
They are designed to provide independent analysis of the credit worthiness — the ability to pay off loans or investments — of companies, countries and financial products. They rate them on a sliding scale ranging from AAA to D. In the case of government bonds, anything that slips to BB+, as was the case with Greece this week, is considered a “highly speculative” investment: Or “junk bonds” in the parlance of the markets.
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