PARIS (Archyde.com) – ESMA, the European Securities and Markets Authority, has fined financial ratings firm Standard & Poor Global Ratings (S&P) 1.1 million euros for posting credit ratings. credit before the relevant securities are issued.
“The publication of a credit rating before the issuance of rated securities can harm the issuer, investors and, more generally, the proper functioning of financial markets,” said Verena Ross, Chair of ESMA.
The Authority points out that this incident occurred six times, attributing responsibility to a failure of S&P’s “internal control mechanisms”.
Among other breaches of the rules, the Authority cites the fact that the agency did not disclose “in a non-selective and timely manner” the reason for which it withdrew six ratings between 2019 and 2021, as well as the fact for not having submitted updated rating information to him.
“All breaches were found to be the result of negligence on the part of S&P,” writes ESMA.
In a press release, S&P, which can still appeal ESMA’s decision, said it was satisfied to have managed to complete this file.
ESMA has never fined S&P, but in 2014 it publicly warned the rating agency and its French subsidiary following it mistakenly announced a downgrade in France’s sovereign credit rating in 2011 , during the eurozone debt crisis.
(Report Marc Jones, with Huw Jones and Andres Gonzalez; French version Claude Chendjou, editing by Kate Entringer)
