Ratings Agency | featured news

Fitch credit ratings agency downgrades the UK to AA+ owing to a weakened economic outlook, but Chancellor George Osborne defends his austerity plan.

Moody's plans to review its debt ratings of California cities over the next few weeks and said it believes the risk of default on municipal bonds in the state is rising.

Standard & Poor's ratings agency has downgraded France's credit rating, French television channels reported on Friday, citing a government source.

Moody's on Friday cut Belgium's credit rating by two notches, saying the euro zone debt crisis increases funding risks for countries with high public debt burdens.

The European Union set out proposals for strict new regulations on credit-rating firms in a move it said was aimed in part at diversifying the industry.

Moody's downgraded Bank of America's and Wells Fargo's long-term ratings and the short-term ratings of Citigroup, saying it believes the U.S. government is less likely to support the banks if needed.

European stock futures declined Wednesday as Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Societe Generale SA and Credit Agricole SA and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said developed nations should not rely on China to bail them out. U.S. futures and Asian shares dropped.

Fitch Ratings warned on Thursday that it might downgrade the credit rating of China within two years and there was a greater than even chance of a downgrade of Japan's credit status.

Fitch Ratings said Tuesday it will keep its rating on U.S. debt at the highest grade, AAA, and issued a "stable" outlook, meaning it expects the rating to stay there.

Standard & Poor's, whose unprecedented downgrade of U.S. debt triggered a worldwide stocks sell-off, is pushing back against a U.S. government proposal that would require credit raters to disclose "significant errors" in how they calculate their ratings.