Özet:

In the USA financial services industry and credit rating industry have been working in a closely interrelated manner since 1975. The US Security and Exchange Commission allowed solely credit rating agencies with Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations designation to operate in credit rating industry. The restrictions imposed by Security and Exchange Commission on credit rating agencies to enter the industry have created an oligopoly in credit rating market dominated by the big tree consisting of Standard and Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch. The fact that Security and Exchange Commission and Basel II framework referenced credit ratings as a benchmark in regulations and banks’ capital requirements respectively increased the importance of the credit rating agencies. The decision that the big three changed their business model from ‘investors pay’ to ‘issuer pay’ model led to the dominance of the security issuers over credit rating agencies and consequently it forced credit rating agencies to produce high credit ratings with low informative quality related to credit risk assessments. Evidence suggests that the conflicts of interest in credit rating industry have played a triggering role in 2007 Global Financial Crisis. This paper modestly attempts to understand the abovementioned web of relations and the role of credit rating agencies in 2007 Global Financial Crisis. 

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