Credit Ratings and Structured Finance

Joel Shapiro and Jens Josephson

No 13534, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: The poor performance of credit ratings of structured finance products in the financial crisis has prompted investigation into the role of credit rating agencies (CRAs) in designing and marketing these products. We analyze a two-period reputation model in which a CRA both designs and rates securities that are sold both to investors who are constrained to purchase highly rated securities and investors who are unconstrained. Assets are pooled and senior and junior tranches are issued with a waterfall structure. When the rating constraint is lax, the CRA will include only risky assets in the securitization pool, serving both types of investors without any rating inflation. Rating inflation is decreasing in the tightness of the rating constraint locally. But rating inflation may be non-monotonic in the rating constraint globally, with no rating inflation when the constraint is lax or tight.

Keywords: Credit rating agencies; Reputation; Structured finance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G24 L14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-fmk
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Credit ratings and structured finance (2020)
Working Paper: Credit Ratings and Structured Finance (2019)
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