2023-03-24 09:59:10 ET
- The European Union's capital markets regulator said Friday it fined S&P Global's ( NYSE: SPGI ) ratings firm €1.1M for publishing credit ratings on securities before they were issued.
- The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) said the S&P Global Ratings Europe prematurely published the ratings due to internal control failures.
- "Between June 5, 2019 and September 8, 2021, flaws in these procedures and their implementation led S&P to prematurely release ratings regarding securities issued by six issuers," ESMA said in a public notice . "S&P subsequently removed these ratings from its public platforms, without providing any reasoning, and republished them later."
- The regulator said this led to the company submitting inaccurate and out-of-date information to ESMA.
- "Today's action emphasizes the importance ESMA places on credit rating agencies complying with their obligations of timely disclosure of information regarding ratings to the market," said ESMA's Chair Verena Ross.
- S&P Global Ratings Europe can appeal against this decision.
- Earlier, S&P Global Ratings settled an SEC investigation, agreeing to pay a $2.5M fine .
For further details see:
S&P Global Ratings fined €1.1M by EU market watchdog