Assessing Credit Rating Agencies by Bond Issuers and Institutional Investors

Abstract

We examine how a sample of publicly traded corporate bond issuers and institutional investors, namely corporate bond funds, assess the four major nationally recognized credit rating agencies and their role in capital markets. The results show that these issuers and institutional investors differ dramatically in their assessments about rating agencies. Specifically, the majority of institutional investors require, as a matter of formal policy, only one rating when they buy rated corporate bonds, but most issuers obtain two or more ratings. Issuers and institutional investors also differ in their assessments about whether ratings accurately reflect creditworthiness and whether agencies maintain timely ratings. In aggregate, the results suggest that differences between bond issuers and institutional investors reflect the different roles that rating agencies provide in the market place.