Bond Buyers Easing Rating Requirements to Shop for More Deals
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Institutional investors are rewriting their old rules so they can buy bonds assigned credit ratings by a broader variety of firms, according to Kroll Bond Rating Agency Inc. and Morningstar Inc.
Over the past year, more than 30 investment firms have eased internal guidelines that limited them to bonds rated by at least one or two of the top three graders: Moody’s Investors Service, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings, said Kim Diamond, Kroll’s head of structured finance.