EU finance ministers agreed today to step up oversight of credit ratings agencies with plans to require their registration in Europe, the European Union's French presidency said.
'There is an agreement on rating agencies,' French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde told reporters after chairing a meeting with her EU counterparts.
'First, there is an agreement in principle on registering rating agencies and there is an agreement on monitoring credit rating agencies,' she added.
Leading rating agencies Moody's, Standard and Poor's, and Fitch have come under fire recently for being to slow to alert investors to the dangers of investments based on US subprime home mortgage loans.
EU Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy said that he aimed to come forward with concrete proposals in October on how to improve supervision of ratings agencies.
He also said that he preferred that the Committee of European Securities Regulators, a body that currently focused on coordination among its members, be in charge of registering and monitoring ratings agencies.
