The Independent Impact of Credit Rating Changes – The Case of Moody's Rating Refinement on Yield Premiums

On April 26, 1982, Moody's Investors Service refined its rating system for the first time in its seventy-three year rating history. We examine the information content of the rating refinement in the study. We find a statistically significant change in the yields on bonds whose ratings were downgraded. The detection of the impact of refinement on bond prices implies that rating agencies perform an important function in financial markets, that is they provide information to investors.     

The Effect of Solicitation and Independence on Corporate Bond Ratings

Abstract:   This comparison of solicited and independent bond rating agencies performance reveals that the ratings assigned by Moody's and Standard & Poor's are consistently lower than those assigned by Duff and Phelps and Fitch IBCA and are consistently higher than those assigned by MCM. While Moody's and S&P generally downgrade bond ratings sooner than Duff and Phelps and Fitch IBCA, the four major agencies upgrade at the same time. Moody's tends to have a higher upgrade magnitude than Duff and Phelps, but the downgrade magnitudes do not differ. MCM upgrades its ratings more quickly than either Moody's or S&P. The results give support to the timeliness and accuracy of ratings provided by the independent agencies.     

信用评级在中国债券市场的影响力

信用评级能够为市场提供风险信息从而增强市场对企业的约束,因此对资本市场的健康发展起着重要的作用。在中国,评级市场刚刚起步。本文利用2007至2009年间发行的企业债数据,用实证的方法研究本土信用评级在债券市场上的影响力。我们建立真实利息成本(TIC)回归模型,以信用评级和其他相关因素对债券的真实利息成本进行计量回归,分析信用评级在一级市场中对债券发行成本的影响。我们发现债券评级和主体评级分别对发行成本具有解释力,但债券评级对发行成本的影响力大于主体评级。     

The Effect of Bond Rating Agency Announcements on Bond and Stock Prices

This paper examines daily excess bond returns associated with announcements of additions to Standard and Poor's Credit Watch List, and to rating changes by Moody's and Standard and Poor's. Reliably nonzero average excess bond returns are observed for additions to Standard and Poor's Credit Watch List when an expectations model is used to classify additions as either expected or unexpected. Bond price effects are also observed for actual downgrade and upgrade announcements by rating agencies. Excluding announcements with concurrent disclosures weakens the results for downgrades, but not upgrades. The stock price effects of rating agency announcements are also examined and contrasted with the bond price effects.     

The information content of credit ratings: evidence from European convertible bond markets

Prior research has investigated the information content of credit ratings for standard financing instruments such as stocks and corporate bonds, while this question has been neglected for convertible bonds (CBs) so far. CBs are simultaneously determined by the bond floor and the conversion value, which makes it more difficult to assess price effects following rating announcements. In this context, we compare price effects of CBs with those of stocks and corporate bonds of the same issuer using robust event study methods. Our findings indicate that rating changes convey new information for investors in European CBs. In terms of the direction of the expected price reaction, we find CBs to react in a more debt-like manner to the announcement of a rating change. Moreover, our results provide evidence that the magnitude of price reactions differs among different types of securities.     

国外市政债券银行的运作及启示

市政债券是国外市政建设融资的重要方式。市政债券的参与可以增强债券信用等级、扩大发行规模,从而降低隔资成本。随着我国经济的发展、资本市场的深化、产业结构的调整,培育和发展我国的市政债券市场已经势在必行。     

Intensified Competition and The Impact on Credit Ratings in the RMBS market

In this paper, we empirically investigate the impact of intensified competition on rating quality in the credit rating market for residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) in the period 2017–2020. We provide evidence that competition between large credit rating agencies (CRAs) (Moody's and Standard & Poor's) and newer smaller ones (Dominion Bond Rating Service Morningstar and Kroll Bond Rating Agency) creates credit rating inconsistencies in the RMBS market. While a credit rating should solely represent the underlying credit risk of a RMBS, irrespective of the competition in the market, our results show that this is not the case. When competitive pressure is higher, both large and small CRAs tend to adjust their rating standards (smaller CRAs react to large CRAs and vice versa).     

美国评级业监管发展动向及述评

在过去近百年的时间里,美国的资信评级业扩张明显,在资本市场的作用日益重要,评级业的监管也日益完善。本文回顾了美国评级业的监管历史,对2006年新发布的资信评级机构改革法案进行了介绍,并总结和评论了美国证监会2007年发布的“注册为全国认可统计评级组织的评级机构监管”规则提案征求意见稿的相关内容,以期为我国的评级业发展提供借鉴。     

信贷市场中的企业声誉与机制研究

现行信用评价体系都是从银行角度出发的,没有任何一种指标体系或衡量方法是站在企业角度、从企业的能力和特征因素等方面反映其信誉情况的。本文引入了企业声誉这一概念,在信贷市场的框架下,运用统计分析方法,筛选影响企业声誉的关键指标,构建企业声誉度量模型,研究企业声誉对于银行信贷决策和信用评价体系的作用,并探讨企业声誉机制建设的可行性。     

The Effect of Bond Rating Changes and New Ratings on UK Stock Returns

This is the first study to use daily data from a major capital market outside of the US to examine the role of corporate bond and commercial paper rating changes on common stock returns. Using data published by Standard and Poors' credit rating agency between 1984 and 1992, we examine the impact of new credit ratings, credit rating changes and Credit Watch announcements on UK common stock returns. We find significant negative excess returns around the date of a downgrade and positive returns close to the date of a positive CreditWatch announcement. Hence, the financial markets would appear to place some importance on rating agency pronouncements in the UK. New ratings, whether short or long-term, have no significant impact on returns. We also attempt to quantify the impact of a new credit rating upon firm cost of capital through measures of conditional volatility and systematic risk. However, we find only weak evidence to suggest that a stock's cost of capital is reduced after a long-term credit rating is awarded for the first time.     

Information Transfer Effects of Bond Rating Downgrades

This paper investigates information transfer effects of bond rating downgrades measured by equity abnormal returns for industry portfolios. Industry rivals can be subject to two opposing effects, the contagion effect and the competition effect. We find that the net effect is strongly dependent on the original bond rating of the downgraded firm. For investment‐grade (speculative‐grade) firms, industry abnormal equity returns are negative (positive), which implies a predominant contagion (competition) effect. The analysis reveals a rich pattern of positive and negative correlations across negative credit events, which can be used to improve our understanding of portfolio credit risk models.     

The Effect of Credit Ratings on Disclosure: Evidence from the Recalibration of Moody's Municipal Ratings

This paper examines how credit rating levels affect municipal debt issuers’ disclosure decisions. Using exogenous upgrades in credit rating levels caused by the recalibration of Moody's municipal ratings scale in 2010, we find that upgraded municipalities significantly reduce their disclosure of required continuing financial information, relative to unaffected municipalities. Consistent with a reduction in debtholders’ demand for information driving these results, the reduction in disclosure is greater when municipal bonds are held by investors who relied more on disclosure ex ante. However, we also find that the reduction in disclosure does not manifest when issuers are monitored by underwriters with greater issuer-specific expertise and when issuers are subject to direct regulatory enforcement through the receipt of federal funding. Overall, our results suggest that higher credit rating levels lower investor demand for disclosure in the municipal market, and highlight the role of underwriters and direct regulatory enforcement in maintaining disclosure levels when investor demand is low.     

劳动投资效率、企业性质与资产收益率

基于中国信用债券市场的近期违约事件,本文研究发现:涉事评级机构不仅没有因为涉及债券违约事件而收紧信用评级标准,反而更加高估企业的信用评级水平,并且涉及的债券违约事件越多,高估信用评级的程度越大。但投资者通过“用脚投票”方式惩罚了涉事评级机构,导致其市场份额相对于非涉事评级机构出现显著下降或者增长较低的态势,同时涉事评级机构的信用评级意见对于降低企业融资成本的作用显著降低。     

Credit ratings quality: The perceptions of market participants and other interested parties

The global credit crunch of 2008 and related sub-prime mortgage crisis of 2007 have made credit ratings agencies (CRAs) the focus of international attention. In particular, the quality of ratings information and the responsibilities CRAs owe to financial markets have come under intense scrutiny. Specifically, commentators, politicians, and regulators have expressed concern at the involvement CRAs might have had in creating global financial instability. However, the term ratings quality remains largely absent from the academic literature.This paper constructs a measurement instrument to capture ratings quality provided by CRAs, and assesses differences in perceptions of ratings quality amongst four stakeholder groups in public debt markets. Two macro-constructs of ratings quality are identified, labelled Technical Qualities and Relationship Qualities. The two macro-constructs are measured by ten micro-attributes, labelled: Cooperation; Independence; Internal Processes; Issuer Orientation; Methodology; Reputation; Service Quality; Shared Values and Norms; Transparency; and Trust. Each micro-attribute is operationalised into individual items, and then empirically tested using data obtained in the UK from 121 issuers, 75 non-debt issuing financial managers, 90 investors, and 120 other interested parties.The data suggest that ratings quality involves, in order of importance: the CRA's reputation; those values and norms of the CRA shared by users; the methodologies employed by the CRA; the independence of the CRA; and internal processes within the CRA. Multivariate analysis of variance finds no statistically significant variation between the groups for Technical Qualities factors. However, issuers rate Relationship Qualities and its micro-attributes of Trust, Issuer Orientation, and Service Quality higher than other market participants; a finding that reflects the dyadic relationship between the issuer's treasurer and lead analyst of the CRA. The paper concludes with a number of policy-relevant issues.     

地方政府债券的经济影响分析

地方政府债券的发行对经济的影响涉及宏观、微观、金融、财政、区域发展等多个层面.其在缓解地方财政困难的同时也可能助长地方政府负债冲动,对中央财政的影响则取决于地方政府自身的偿付能力及发债规模的控制.在微观层面.地方政府债券的发行会促进地方性公共品的供给,同时也有利于实现公共品受益的代际公平;在宏观层面,有助于克服利用外资的本币化倾向,规避汇率风险问题.此外,地方政府债券的推出也有助于完善金融市场和金融体系,其对区域经济发展的影响取决于发债地区的选择标准.在推出地方债券的同时,必须通过审慎的管理来防范其风险.     

Forecasting the Term Structure of South African Government Bond Yields

This article uses the parsimonious dynamic Nelson–Siegel model to fit the yields of South African government bonds. We find that the dynamic Nelson–Siegel model has good fitting abilities for all maturities. We further forecast the term structure by seven different dynamic Nelson–Siegel models with time series models. We find that the DNS–VAR–GARCH model is useful for forecasting the short-term rates, the DNS–VAR best predicts the medium-term rates, and the DNS–RW best predicts the long-term rates. In addition, the dynamic Nelson–Siegel models provide better forecasts of yield data than a random walk model, especially for the 12-month forecasting horizons.     

The Effect of Corporate Social Responsibility on Cost of Corporate Bond: Evidence from China

This article examines the link between corporate social responsibility(CSR) and cost of bond(COB) in China. We find that there exists a negative relationship between CSR and COB. In particular, when the bond issuer is a state-owned enterprise, or when the credit rating of bond is high, the negative association between CSR and COB is strengthened. The findings indicate that CSR plays a significant role in reducing the risk premium of corporate bonds through an insurance-like effect. Moreover, the effect of CSR on COB also depends on contextual factors such as firm ownership and bond credit rating.