An analysis of market participants’ perceptions on the EU credit rating agency regulations

The 2007-9 global economic crisis had a multiplicity of inter-related causal factors but one factor often highlighted concerns the role of credit rating agencies (CRAs) in the crisis. Following the crisis, the European Commission, (EC) implemented new regulations designed to control the worst excesses of the CRAs as well as reduce the chances of such events re-occurring in future. This paper focuses on the implementation of the EC regulations on CRAs with the aim of understanding how participants working in the UK financial markets perceived the EC Credit Rating Agency regulations and their impact on market practices. The empirical research undertaken for this paper leads to a conclusion that the EC CRA regulations were seen to fall short of what was required for effective regulation and are unlikely to inhibit the role of CRAs in future or prevent such crises. This situation poses major challenges to public policy which must be addressed by governments at national and supra-national levels