Rating agencies scrutinize EU plan to warn nations in advance

                             

The European Commission proposed requiring credit rating agencies to provide countries with three days' notice if their sovereign-debt rating is to be changed. Currently, issuers receive 12 hours' notice to challenge factual errors. The agencies argued that a three-day window could encourage insider trading. "One of the leakiest areas in our business is sovereign ratings," said Paul Taylor, president of Fitch Ratings. "If you inform the Greeks of a rating decision, you get phoned up by the French. Countries tend to talk to each other." Full story here