Sunset of Financial Rating Agencies

Rating Agencies were independently owned entities who added value by objective financial assessment of companies which they translated into Rating Symbols.
In the early 90's the Rating Agencies could not be independent anymore, they became attached to larger entities and  their ability to see clearly diminished.
Slowly their looking glass became opaque and their contribution to the financial world became more like a Mad Hatters Party and gradually they lost their credibility.
For want of any other alternative Rating Agencies continued to be used, like using a one eyed guide in a blind country. But today the truth is out and Rating Agencies have become an outcast in the world of finance.

Sunset at  Mumbai 

Here are five actions which may arrest the decline  of Financial Rating Agencies:

1. Disperse the shareholders of rating agencies and restore its independence.
2. The regulator must review  rating methodology used by the Rating Agency.
3. Rating committe meetings will be recorded on camera.
4. Punitive action for insider trading and biased rating.

5. Regulator to appoint experienced professionals to the Board and rating committees.

Sunset of Financial Rating Agencies is Imminent if they do not set their house in order on their own or with the help of the Regulator.
It will be a sad day when the Financial World discards the rating agencies who once  contributed to the advent of secure and stable markets.
Will the Rating Agencies weather the Storm and come out Clean? 

Exchangebus - Crystal gazing into future markets

As the world markets move into a tizzy and southwards I dedicate my new blog to the world of financial markets.

Financial Markets are like landscaped gardens and need constant tending. 

The financial markets  are at crossroads and  the way we trade will change in this decade:
1. The basis or order matching may change, faster trading engines do not ensure best price discovery, the algorithmic trading engines have also peaked, the market mechanism will need to be overhauled.
2.Cloud Computing Technology will reduce the technology  cost barrier to build exchanges.
3. Trading may evolve from equities and commodities to  newer trade-able items like labor and resources in our solar system.
4. Regulators will be under pressure to bring order into the markets and traders will continue to stay ahead of the regulator.
5. Barriers to global trading will emerge, which may also mean  change in global markets we see today.
6. Risks will continue in trading, with gradual introduction of digital money and one-world currency geography will cease to be of concern.
7. There will be huge upheavals in the way we view global economics as we enter fuzzier and uncharted marketplaces.