Moody’s Corp., Moody’s Investors Service and Moody’s Analytics will pay $12 million to Massachusetts to settle charges that they acted deceptively and did not use accurate or appropriate standards when rating securities tied to subprime mortgages, Attorney General Maura Healey’s office said on Tuesday.
That figure is part of a nearly $864 million settlement Moody’s paid to the Massachusetts AG’s office, the Department of Justice, 21 other states and the District of Columbia, over its role in the financial crisis.
“The white-washing of subprime mortgage securities by credit rating agencies helped push the housing market off a cliff,” Healey said in a statement. “Nearly a decade later, our work to combat predatory and unlawful practices by mortgage originators, investment banks and other financial firms remains central to our work protecting consumers in Massachusetts.”
The charges against Moody’s concern its ratings of investment vehicles based on pools of mortgages, including residential mortgage-backed securities backed by subprime mortgages and collateralized debt obligations.
Moody’s publicly put itself forth as an independent and objective evaluator of these investment vehicles, when in actuality, the company gave more favorable credit ratings because it wanted to earn lucrative fees from its investment bank clients. In so doing, those securities Moody’s rated appeared less risky than they actually were, and the sale of those toxic securities ultimately contributed to the financial crisis.
Among other things, Moody’s altered its process for computing its ratings without informing its customers that the system had been changed, and gave in to pressure from securities issuers who were paying Moody’s to rate securities. The investment banks needed AAA ratings in order to sell these securities to institutional investors, such as pension plans and retirement plans.
Healey’s office said the alleged misconduct began as early as 2001 and worsened between 2004 and 2007.
In addition to the monetary settlement, Moody’s has agreed to abide by new compliance practices that include restrictions on how it compensates certain employees, enhancements to oversight and analyst training.
This case and the implementation of the settlement in Massachusetts are being handled by Assistant Attorneys General Peter Leight, Jenna Snow and Glenn Kaplan of the Attorney General’s insurance and financial services division.
