S&P loses rating assignments to Kroll and Morningstar

Large banks such as JPMorgan Chase, Citibank and Goldman Sachs are now using credit ratings firms such as Kroll and Morningstar to rate their Collateralized Mortgage Backed Securities (CMBS) offerings rather than S&P. The large banks are making the credit ratings market more competitive by straying outside of the big 3 firms of S&P, Moody’s and Fitch. For the credit ratings firms, the fees for doing these ratings are quite high and this represents a very positive revenue boost for Kroll and Morningstar.