Rating agencies: An end to free speech?

Ratings agencies may not use the First Amendment to protect themselves but they still won’t be successfully sued over every structured credit opinion.

The fact that a US judge did not dismiss a case brought against two ratings agencies and a bank involved in the failed Cheyne SIV (which collapsed in October 2007) has raised the prospect of a wave of fraud allegations to come from the legion of disgruntled structured credit investors whose stakes in these deals have been wiped out over the past two years. The case was brought by two institutional investors, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank and King County, which filed 32 claims of common-law fraud, negligent misrepresentation, negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, unjust enrichment and aiding and abetting against Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s together with Morgan Stanley and BoNY Mellon (the case against BoNY Mellon was thrown out in its entirety).

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