U.S. House panel to hold Sept. 27 ratings hearing

WASHINGTON, Sept 14 (Reuters) - The U.S. House Financial Services subcommittee on capital markets on Friday said it will hold a Sept. 27 hearing on the role of credit rating agencies in the structured finance market, including mortgage-backed securities (MBS).

The hearing will examine how agencies assess the credit quality of complex financial instruments, conflicts of interest and their role in developing new debt products, said Paul Kanjorski, who chairs the panel.

"We will also study the transparency ... for evaluating structured products and evaluating the timeliness of recent decisions to downgrade the ratings of many MBS and CDO (collateralized debt obligations) products backed by subprime mortgages," he said.

The panel did not say who would be testifying (Reporting by Kevin Drawbaugh and John Poirier)