Moody's warned Thursday it may cut the credit ratings of 17 global and 114 European financial institutions in another sign the impact of the Euro zone government debt crisis is spreading throughout the global financial system.
Rating agency Moody's announced on Tuesday it had downgraded six European nations including Italy, Spain and Portugal, citing growing risks from Europe's debt crisis, and warned it may cut the triple-A ratings of France, Britain and Austria.
Credit rating agencies believe that in spite of the successful management of its sovereign debt Uruguay still has some issues to improve before investment grade is awarded. Moody’s has promised to visit Uruguay at the beginning of next year to assess those conditions.
Standard and Poor's Corp said Thursday it was upgrading the credit rating of Brazil by one notch to BBB, adding that the upgrade reflected the country’s increasing capacity to hold up against the overall deterioration in the global economic outlook.
Moody’s ratings agency decided on Thursday to surprisingly downgrade the rating of ten German public-sector banks. This is the first time Europe’s largest economy in the region, which keeps the Euro zone afloat, is hit.
Credit ratings agency Moody's changed its outlook for Brazilian meat processor Marfrig from stable to negative, citing what it feels is a deterioration in Marfrig's credit viability due to strong competition in the Brazilian protein sector in recent months, higher commodity prices, a global economic slowdown and currency volatility.
In a carefully worded statement, Moody's Investor Service hinted that the outlook for France's top-tier credit rating could be at risk. The nation still enjoys very high government financial strength, said the ratings agency in its annual credit report on France, released late Monday.
Moody's Investors Service cut Spain's sovereign ratings by two notches, saying high levels of debt in the banking and corporate sectors leave the country vulnerable to funding stress.
Argentina’s Central Bank’s Governor (BCRA) Mercedes Marcó del Pont said on Thursday that the Argentine banking system “is in its best historical levels of liquidity, solvency and default rates” referring to an earlier report from Moody’s rating agency.
The 'oligopolistic structure' of international credit rating agencies is probably undesirable, the head of the European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet said on Thursday.