Moody's | featured news

The United States had its triple-A rating confirmed by two key ratings agencies on Tuesday after Washington struck a last-minute deal to avoid a debt default, but threats of future downgrades remain.

Ratings agency Moody's on Monday suggested the United States should eliminate its statutory limit on government debt to reduce uncertainty among bond holders.

The spot price of gold set fresh intraday records after Moody's put its long-standing triple-A rating of U.S. Treasurys on review, triggering fresh buying of the yellow metal and prompting bulls to eye a break above $1,600 a troy ounce.

Nearly one-third of 91 European banks undergoing the latest round of public stress tests could need external support to be brought up to scratch, Moody's said.

Ratings agency Moody's warned on Thursday it would consider cutting the United States' coveted top-notch credit rating if the White House and Congress do not make progress by mid-July in talks to raise the debt limit.

Moody's Investors Service said it may downgrade the debt ratings of Bank of America Corp, Citigroup Inc and Wells Fargo & Co, citing concerns about waning political willingness to offer support for the largest U.S. banks.

Regulators took new steps Wednesday to overhaul the firms whose rosy credit ratings inspired overconfidence in investments tied to toxic mortgages. The Securities and Exchange Commission proposed rules meant to improve the system by which such firms as Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s assign ratings.

Ratings firms won another victory against legal claims that they should be held responsible for billions of dollars in losses suffered by investors during the financial crisis. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that Moody's Corp., Standard & Poor's, and Fitch Ratings can't be held liable for their ratings of mortgage-backed securities.

Moody's downgraded Bank of America's underlying mortgage-servicing ratings to reflect the challenges the bank continues to face with the integration of Countrywide.

Moody's slashed Greece's credit rating by three notches on Monday, raising the specter that the distressed euro zone sovereign may be forced to restructure its debt, perhaps even before 2013.