BERLIN (MNI) – German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said
Wednesday he supports proposals by French central bank governor
Christian Noyer to strengthen competition in the credit rating market.
Schaeuble told reporters he “strongly welcomes” the French
initiative to “break up the oligopoly” of the existing three major
rating agencies.
Noyer told German business daily Handelsblatt in an interview that
in France, for example, financial insurers such as Euler-Hermes and
Coface could rate the quality of loans.
“They could establish their own ratings,” the central bank governor
said, adding that they have the “knowledge, the appropriate experience,
and have to pay if their ratings are wrong.” These companies could
“easily conquer the rating market,” Noyer claimed.
–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com
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