BERLIN (MNI) – EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding, in an
interview with German daily Die Welt published on Monday, called for
drastic steps to curb the “cartel” of the three major rating agencies.
“Either the G-20 states jointly decide to smash the cartel of the
three US rating agencies — for example the U.S. could be asked to make
six rating agencies out of the [current] three — or there will be
European and Asian rating agencies created,” Reding told Die Welt.
“It cannot be that a cartel of three U.S. firms decides the fate of
whole economies and their citizens,” the Commissioner said.
Eurogroup chairman Jean-Claude Juncker last week called the
downgrade of Portugal by the rating agency Moody’s “irresponsible” and
“disastrous.”
–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com
[TOPICS: MT$$$$,M$X$$$,MGX$$$,M$$CR$,MFX$$$,MGX$$$]
