Chinese rating agency chairman criticizes Western peers for financial crisis

July 22 Morning News, according to foreign media reports, China's largest credit rating agency, the Grand Public International Trust Evaluation company chairman Mr Guan criticized the Western peers caused the global financial crisis.　　He also said that as the world's largest creditor country, China should have a greater say in the ratings of Governments and their debt. "Western rating agencies are politicized and highly influenced by ideology rather than by objective criteria," Mr Guan said in the FT's article. "China is the largest creditor country in the world, and with China's rise and national rejuvenation, we should have a say in how to judge the credit risk of each country," he added. "The three major rating agencies that dominate the global credit rating industry, Moody's Investor Service, Standard Poole and Fitch Ratings, have become too close to customers, and they should objectively assess their clients," Mr Guan said.　　He criticized the company's approach to "rating and purchase", whereby companies offer the most favourable ratings to their businesses. Earlier, Western rating agencies had been widely criticized by policymakers, regulators and investors in advanced economies for giving AAA optimal ratings to structured financial products, which turned into toxic assets after the financial crisis erupted. Critics also say the ratings agencies are too slow to downgrade some of the debt-laden eurozone economies. The most prominent is Spain, which still has a triple A rating from Moody's. There are also many investors who believe that ratings agencies will be deterred from withdrawing AAA ratings for countries such as the United States and Britain because of political pressure.