Mortgage Ratings Blamed for Subprime Crisis Still Flawed, Ex-Insider Says
- Model where issuers pay for ratings still flawed, Esaki says
- Tossing out the most lenient ratings can improve incentives
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The system for rating mortgage bonds and similar securities is still flawed a decade after loose grades helped trigger a financial crisis, and fixing it may be as simple as making a single rule, a former analyst for S&P said.
Howard Esaki, who retired from S&P Global Ratings in 2015, said he believes that for securities like mortgage bonds, issuers should be required to ignore the most lenient grade they receive. If a bank selling a bond seeks ratings from three firms, for example, it should have to use the two that are based on stricter standards, Esaki wrote in a forthcoming paper to be published by the Milken Institute.