media release

IR 05-63 ASIC provides ongoing licensing relief for credit rating agencies

Published

ASIC has announced that it has granted ongoing licensing relief for credit rating agencies.

The relief, which is provided under Class Order [CO 05/1230] Credit Rating Agencies, conditionally exempts Moody’s Investors Service Pty Limited, Standard & Poor’s (Australia) Pty Limited, Fitch Australia Pty Limited and Rapid Ratings Pty Limited from the financial services regime where they provide financial product advice in the form of credit ratings.

[CO 05/1230] applies where these credit rating agencies:

  • provide credit ratings as part of their ordinary course of business;
  • include appropriate warnings with their credit ratings;
  • comply with paragraph 4.1 of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions’ Code of Conduct Fundamentals for Credit Rating Agencies; and
  • give ASIC information about their credit ratings business on request.

This relief takes into account feedback received during public consultation in response to our consultation paper, Licensing: Credit rating agencies (see ASIC Information Release [IR 05-30] ASIC seeks industry comment on proposed licensing exemption for credit rating agencies). ASIC acknowledges all those who provided feedback and made submissions on the consultation paper.

‘This relief reflects ASIC’s longstanding approach to regulating credit rating agencies in a way that is consistent with current international thinking and draws on widely accepted international standards for credit rating agency conduct’, Mr Malcolm Rodgers, Executive Director, Regulation, said.

‘If necessary, we will revisit our position as international developments progress’, Mr Rodgers continued.

ASIC will consider applications for relief from other credit rating agencies able to comply with the conditions of Class Order [CO 05/1230] on a case-by-case basis. These applications should address the criteria set out in Policy Statement 51 Applications for Relief [PS 51] and Policy Statement 167 Licensing: Discretionary Powers [PS 167].

End of release

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