As S&P’s Crisis-Era Cloud Lifts, Focus Shifts to Moody’s
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Standard & Poor’s $1.5 billion settlement to resolve claims it inflated mortgage-bond ratings is giving shareholders in its parent company optimism that the worst of its crisis-era legal woes are behind it. For owners of rival Moody’s Corp., concern is mounting that it has more to come.
Shares of S&P owner McGraw Hill Financial Inc. have gained 6.2 percent the past three months to $94.84 as it settled government claims Tuesday that it bent ratings criteria to win business during the housing boom. That’s compared with a 6.7 percent decline for Moody’s, which owns the second-largest credit rater. Moody’s closed at $92.22 in New York.