Moody's to unveil new ratings measures -FT
LONDON, May 14 (Reuters) - Credit ratings agency Moody's Investors Service will on Wednesday unveil two new measures to help investors understand the risks in structured finance products, the Financial Times said.
Michel Madelain, the new chief operating officer of Moody's, told the newspaper that the new indexes would show how rapidly a security could lose a top-notch rating if the economic climate changed.
Officials at Moody's were not immediately available for comment.
Ratings agencies have come under fire for sharp downgrades of triple-A rated structured finance bonds and vehicles in the wake of the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis. As a result, Moody's and its competitors, Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings, have been developing plans to respond to investor concerns.
The plans announced by Madelain are in line with proposals the ratings agency made in February, when it said it was considering introducing new ratings that would add information to the traditional scales that look at default risk.
Madelain said that Moody's would continue to use the familiar alphabet scale for rating structured finance products, meaning they could still achieve triple-A ratings.
"There is no appetite for changing the rating scale," he told the FT, based on investor feedback.
Madelain was named as COO of Moody's, part of Moody's Corp. (MCO.N), in May after the retirement of Brian Clarkson. (Reporting by Richard Barley; Editing by Louise Ireland)
