Phil Papoojian: Effective credit-rating reform needs balance

People in Congress are working on far-reaching legislation to regulate the financial-services industry in hopes of preventing a repeat of the financial turmoil we saw over the last two years.

The U.S. House has already passed a comprehensive package of reforms, but the Senate Banking Committee continues its deliberations on issues ranging from the regulation of institutions “too big to fail” to establishing a consumer-protection agency for financial-services products.

Two key members of the Banking Committee, Rhode Island’s Sen. Jack Reed, a Democrat, and New Hampshire’s Judd Gregg, a Republican, have focused on, among other things, the committee’s work related to Credit Rating Agencies (CRAs), the private-sector agencies that rate bonds...

To read this article in its entirety, please click on the following link.

www.projo.com/opinion/contributors/content/CT_reform9_03-09-10_6EHKG0F_v17.3f8af52.html