Press Releases; Governance & Regulatory Affairs
DBRS Commentary: Strengthening Transparency
At the heart of all new regulations affecting credit rating agencies (CRAs) are transparency and disclosure, points out a DBRS commentary published today. The changes from a number of regulators in North America and Europe focus on what ratings mean; how they are analyzed, determined and monitored; and how they perform. In addition, regulators also want to know that ratings are independently produced and conflict-free.
“Strengthening rating transparency and disclosure has been an area of continuous focus at DBRS,” says Mary Keogh, Managing Director, Regulatory Affairs. Indeed, the DBRS motto is “insight beyond the rating.” DBRS agrees that independent and robust rating policies and methodologies are the cornerstone of high-quality ratings and, therefore, has made them publicly available at no cost on the DBRS website at www.dbrs.com.
The commentary discusses the latest regulatory proposals from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) and the European Securities and Markets Authority, among others. It also explains how DBRS reviews market, industry, product and legal developments on an ongoing basis to ensure that its methodologies remain relevant and how DBRS focuses on global risk areas that pose concern to investors, regulators and other market participants.
“DBRS has continued to expand its sovereigns rating coverage,” explains Ms. Keogh, “and created a specific area on our website where investors have easy access to press releases, ratings reports, commentaries, industry studies and methodologies related to this significant risk area.”
If you are interested in receiving a copy of this study, please email info@dbrs.com.