Raymond McDaniel, Moody’s CEO told a panel at the World Economic Forum

“A lot of things could have been done better,”

Issues over the sub-prime – not all me…

“Some are the responsibility of rating agencies, some of other participants in the market. In hindsight it is pretty clear to us there was a failure in some key assumptions supporting our analytics and our models. The key assumptions failed in part because the information policy, completeness and veracity feeding the work agencies were doing, was deteriorating.”

The rating agencies insistance they aren’t responsible for verifying the accuracy of the information they use to assign ratings is moot. Putting that little detail aside, they can and do have rather greater access to material non-public information about issuers that those relying on their ratings.

So arguments like that of Moody’s don’t necessarily wash, Tom Brown from Seeking Alpha had this to say:

How pathetic. The rating agencies have long insisted they aren’t responsible for verifying the accuracy of the information they use to assign ratings. That may or may not make sense. But they are certainly free to ask for whatever information they think they need to make an informed judgment.