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Credit Rating Agencies Essay

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1.1 History of Credit Rating Agencies

Credit rating agencies (CRAs) have been playing a significant role in financial markets around the world since the beginning of the twentieth century. The industry of credit rating originated when John Moody, a Wall Street analyst and the institutor of one of the biggest CRAs in present day, introduced a system of credit rating for railroad bonds by publishing “Moody’s Manual of Industrial and Miscellaneous Securities” in 1909. Until today, there are now approximately 150 CRAs operating around the world.

Despite the fact that CRAs are now a crucial element in financial markets, it has not always been the case. There was an explanation that financial markets were well operated prior to the existence of the CRAs in the United States. Since the early of the seventeenth century, the Dutch Republic already had in place all fundamental components of a modern financial system including securities markets, a banking system, a central bank, a stable money and a strong public credit. Influenced by the Dutch Republic, England also managed to have all such elements in the late seventeenth century and subsequently, the United States had all components in the last decade of the eighteenth century. It can be seen at that time that financial markets were already functioned properly without the existence of CRAs because investors had confidence in the governments that issued public bonds. Most investments in Europe during the nineteenth century

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