US securities regulators on Wednesday delayed action on adopting stricter rules to rein in the credit rating agencies until December 3. The Securities and Exchange Commission had planned on addressing a number of new disclosure rules for the rating agencies at an open meeting on Wednesday but pulled the item at the last minute and rescheduled it for an open meeting in two weeks.
"Originally we had planned to spread the consideration of the credit rating agency rules over two meetings since that is the way we proposed them," SEC Chairman Christopher Cox said at Wednesday's meeting. "But the commissioners and staff have agreed that the best way to proceed is to do the entire package of rules in one meeting... This rulemaking remains a high priority for the commission."
That means in two weeks the SEC will address proposals that would require agencies such as Standard & Poor's, Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings to differentiate between structured finance products and corporate bonds.
Other rules include requiring credit rating agencies to reveal more information about their ratings for complex products such as those linked to risky mortgages. The SEC will also address other proposals to remove references to credit ratings in most of its rules.