Securities Enforcement Alert: S&P Receives a One-Year Suspension for MBS Ratings Misconduct

Summary: On January 21, 2015, the US Securities and Exchange Commission brought charges for the very first time against a major rating agency, sanctioning Standard & Poor’s Rating Services for making misrepresentations and failing to maintain accurate records and controls concerning its rating of certain commercial and residential mortgage-backed securities (CMBS and RMBS). Those sanctions include a one-year ban from rating any new issue US conduit/fusion CMBS transactions and $77 million in payments to the SEC and to the New York State and Massachusetts attorneys general.