In the last issue of The Treasurer, we looked at what a rating means (and does not mean) and how our business model works. In this article we examine the actions that Standard & Poor’s is taking in light of events of the past 18 months.
S&P uses the same rating scale across all types of debt: structured finance, corporate and government. It provides a common language for evaluating and comparing creditworthiness across all major sectors and subsectors, and is accepted by the vast majority of market participants. Our focus is on developing, maintaining and, if necessary, adjusting ratings criteria to achieve reasonably consistent credit opinions across sectors and regions.
