Since the financial crisis in 2007, residential mortgage-backed securities have been hit with high levels of borrower defaults, realized losses and credit rating downgrades.  Realized losses declared on private residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS), already much higher than original rating agency and investor estimates, are projected...

The following is a hypothetical conversation between Constance “Connie” de Boudinville, the dashing and attractive spokesperson for the US credit rating industry, and Axel Raskolnikov, an eastern European banker on a fact-finding mission in the United States aimed at improving the practice of banking in...

Joint Obligation Ratings in Consumer ABS Thomas Adams, Ann Rutledge and Sylvain Raynes Current rating agency practices do not appear to factor into the ratings of insured consumer asset-backed securities (ABS) the effects of correlation between an insurer default and a transaction default.  As a result, the...

Rating Agencies have borne much of the blame for the credit crisis, but now they're fighting back with accusations that they were misled by the banks whose securities they rated. R&R Consulting principal Sylvain Raynes provides his insights on the controversy on Business News Network's...

"Sylvain Raynes is a principal with R&R Consulting, which values structured security deals. He says if the agencies don't change their ratings often, it'll be a sign something funny is happening. 'If you see the ratings are not moving at all and yet you, by...

In her article on the RGE Monitor Web site, R&R's Ann Rutledge discusses two myths that she sees offered as fact in a recent position paper by the Financial Economists Roundtable, "Reforming the Role of the Statistical Ratings Organizations in the Securitization Process." Myth 1:...

Sylvain Raynes and Ann Rutledge are featured in a segment of "NHK Special," a "60 Minutes"-style public affairs program that will air in the U.S. on Sunday, July 6, at 10:00 PM EST on TV Japan. The segment originally aired nationwide in Japan on June...