Tokyo-based media recently met with rare opportunities to hear countering views on how credit-rating agencies operate and how they should operate, when officials from Moody's Investors Service defended their business and the head of a Japanese research institute detailed how it "rated" such agencies.
The Moody's officials spoke at a luncheon Friday at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan, while the head of the Japan Center for International Finance explained its December report at the club Tuesday.
Rating agencies, particularly U.S. firms such as New York-based Moody's and Standard & Poor's, have come under intense scrutiny in recent years as their ratings — upgrading and downgrading bonds and debentures issued by firms and governments — have come to influence the market significantly.