S&P To Be Charged For Mortgage Bond Ratings Issued Before 2008 Financial Crisis: Report

By Mike Obel | February 04 2013 1:51 PM

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services will be charged in federal and state courts for alleged wrongdoing in its ratings of mortgage bonds before the 2008 financial crisis, according to a report published Monday.

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New York-based S&P, a unit of the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (NYSE:MHP), and U.S. Justice Department officials have been negotiating a possible settlement, but those talks appear to have failed, the Wall Street Journal said.

S&P is one of the three major credit ratings agencies that gave high marks to complex mortgage-backed securities that fueled the housing boom of the early 2000s. Those securities collapsed in the subprime mortgage crisis that, in turn, led to the 2009 recession.

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