S&P Says France Rating Remains AAA Despite Accidental Transmission Stating The Opposite

-- The credit ratings for France have not been downgraded by Standard & Poor's, the company said Thursday, clarifying what it says was an accidental transmission of a message to some subscribers that it had downgraded the nation's credit.

In a statement, S&P says a technical error caused the automatic dissemination of a message to some subscribers of its Global Credit Portal "suggesting that France's credit rating had been changed."

S&P says that is not the case and France's ratings remain at "AAA," the highest investment-grade rating, with a "Stable" outlook.

The release was sent to some S&P Ratings subscribers under the headline, "DOWNGRADE," and a link to the France ratings. Anyone who would have clicked on the link would have seen that France's rating was unchanged, said S&P spokesman Martin Winn in London.

The original notice was sent at around 9:57 a.m. Eastern time, and a new release acknowledging the error and affirming France's credit rating was sent out at 11:30 a.m.

French Finance Minister Francois Baroin said in a statement that he has asked the European and French market regulators to investigate the error.

The French regulator AMF confirmed an investigation has been opened and it has contacted the European Securities and Markets Authority.

S&P said it also is investigating.

A downgrade of France's credit rating would likely be a hard hit to investors, who have shown little patience with the economic instability in Europe.

Traders have been concerned in recent days that debt troubles in Italy and Greece could spread to the U.S. and lead to a global crisis.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 389 points Wednesday after Italy's borrowing rates soared to a dangerous level and talks in Greece on naming a new prime minister broke down.

Worries eased on Thursday after Italy sold debt at more favorable rates than analysts expected and there were also signs of progress in Greece.

The Dow rose 130 points, or 1 percent, in afternoon trading.

In October S&P cut Spain's long-term rating to "AA-" from "AA" with a negative outlook. Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings have also downgraded the nation's credit.

In September, S&P cut Italy's long- and short-term sovereign credit ratings, as has Moody's and Fitch.

S&P analysts cited weakening economic growth for Italy and higher-than-expected levels of government debt. Moody's also has downgraded Spain.

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AP Business Writer Sarah DiLorenzo in Paris contributed to this article.

Comments

[fortressfountain]

10:41 AM on 11/11/2011

Lobbied against GA when they wanted to eliminate preditory lending. Big conflict of interest.

[1oldhippie]

08:57 AM on 11/11/2011

Accident or 'insider trading'?

[ThomastonPaine]

08:21 AM on 11/11/2011

What if "Consumer Reports" took money from the products that it reviewed? Would you trust them?

End The Issuer Pays Business Model.

[Ethernum]

08:21 AM on 11/11/2011

A fraud attempt from S&P over another fraud : France is overrated because of hidden unemployement under false french official statistic. rating agencies know well about it when they decided to give France a triple A many years ago. Now S&P is trying to speculate on a false downgrade, which should be real. When robber is stealing another robber...

The real downgrade will come anyway, but the french president is trying to win time because of the presidential of may, 2012. He's pressuring the country with cost cutting policy.

[msbeal]

03:04 AM on 11/11/2011

I want to see investor reactions when S&P announces a downgrade of planet earth.

[Ethernum]

08:23 AM on 11/11/2011

time to downgrade the rating agencies, they were always actively part of the problem.

[msbeal]

12:28 PM on 11/11/2011

The problem was they were inundated with mortgages. They didn't have the staff or the time to handle that tsunami of business between 2004 and 2006.

At the peak their best case scenario was a 3 or 4% sampling of the quality of loans contained within a packaged derivative containing 10,000 mortages.

But, you are still correct. Did they pump up their staffs....nooooo. In fact they describe how they cut their staff and kept the profits. They rubber stamped AAA on everything and rode high selling their bogus ratings.

People don't understand how at the time EVERYONE thought you couldn't lose on real estate. Their greed just blinded everyone from the top on down. Rationality went right out the window.

See Financial Crisis Inquiry Report, 2011.

[wikirating]

02:03 AM on 11/11/2011

An other mistake from S&P... with short but dramatic effects on the market.
For more transparent and reliable credit ratings and rating sources, you might wnat to have a look on the wikirating web site. It provides a platform where everyone can contribute. There is also a nice polling feature where one can vote on credit ratings for sovereign and company debts

[aicequeen36]

12:00 AM on 11/11/2011

OOPS! so sorry for France..but it may happen so enough anyway

[re-elect clinton]

12:48 AM on 11/11/2011

It should've already happened.

[wikirating]

02:03 AM on 11/11/2011

ahaha yes exactly... S&P did no mistake, they just issued the downgrade too early... but by mistake :-)

[marka]

11:24 PM on 11/10/2011

These guys are no-quite-ready-for prime-time. Aren't these the gentlemen that gave those mortgage backed securities those superlative ratings? You have to wonder, what do they know?

[quinns2962]

10:46 PM on 11/10/2011

I think S&P's automated messaging service may be able to predict the future....

[J T K]

03:41 AM on 11/11/2011

Minority Report or Paycheck?

[election2012]

07:52 PM on 11/10/2011

In October S&P cut Spain's long-term rating to "AA-" from "AA" with a negative outlook. Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings have also downgraded the nation's credit. In September, S&P cut Italy's long- and short-term sovereign credit ratings, as has Moody's and Fitch.

It's Downgrade fever at S&P, Fitch, Moody's...