Are Credit Rating Agencies Necessary?
Few people had heard about credit rating agencies 20 years ago, but since 2007, almost everyone working in finance knows about Standard & Poor's, Moody's and Fitch. The three largest credit rating agencies have existed for about a century and have evaluated the credit quality of millions of securities issued by governments, public entities, structured credit, corporates, insurers and banks.
But what exactly do they do? How do they run their evaluations? Why are they better known today? Are they really necessary?
We invite you to hear special guest speaker Blaise Ganguin, Managing Director of Financial Consultancy SwissThink and former Head of Corporate & Infrastructure Ratings (EMEA) & Managing Director at the global credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's. These are the key questions that Blaise will address during his presentation.
SwissThink is a Credit Markets consulting and advisory company providing training and advice to governments, regulators, publicly listed corporations and financial institutions in all matters relating to credit risk. Prior to this Blaise was Head of Corporate & Infrastructure Ratings & Managing Director for EMEA at Standard & Poor’s. In this function, he coordinated a group of 170 analysts spanning 10 offices and over 1600 credit opinions on corporate and infrastructure issuers. Before this role, Blaise was Chief Credit Officer, EMEA, with the responsibility for all analytical policy and criteria development aspects of the rating process in the region. He joined Standard & Poor’s in 1994 as a corporate analyst in Toronto, Canada, and previously worked in banking with UBS in Geneva, New York and Toronto. Blaise co-authored with John J. Bilardello the book "Fundamentals of Corporate Credit Analysis", published at McGraw Hill in 2005. He holds an MBA from the University of Toronto, Canada; a post-graduate degree in International Development and Cooperation from the University of Ottawa, Canada; and a MA in History and International Affairs from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.
About Financial Minds
'Financial Minds' is a series of finance-themed lectures for alumni and students run by Nottingham University Business School. We invite senior people working in finance and related roles to talk about a variety of current financial topics. Events are open to Business School and University alumni, students, and staff as well as visitors from business and industry. These events are an opportunity to gain a unique and inspiring insight and meet people from the business and University communities. Our aim is to put today’s top financial minds in front of tomorrow’s financial leaders.
Directions to Jubilee Campus
Map of Jubilee Campus