Subject: S7-11-22: WebForm Comments from Cliff Morris
From: Cliff Morris
Affiliation: Retired financial advisor. Longtime investor.

May. 20, 2022

 


 May 20, 2022

 I support the proposed rule change. Credit rating agencies have become obsolete in today's world of widely available information.  I echo someone else's words below who expresses my thoughts much better than my limited writing skills allow.  Thank you for your efforts in protecting the American public, and I fervently hope you make this rule change to further that goal.


\"You announced on March 23, 2022, your vote to propose changes that would remove the references to credit rating agencies from existing exceptions provided in Rule 101 and Rule 102 of Regulation M. In the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010, Congress directed federal agencies, including yours, to remove any reference to or requirement of reliance of credit ratings. You have now, twelve years later, completed your research on the matter, and only Rules 101 and 102 still have these notions, and may now be removed as well.

Please proceed as soon as possible with these removals, so that no investor, on the retail or institutional level, must rely on credit ratings, which have failed us in every possible manner.

My reasons being the
 Antiquated manner of functioning of the rating agencies
 Overdue publications of rating updates, often delayed for obscure reasons
 Lack of consistency between the ratings
 Possible conflict of interests between issuers paying the ratings and the agencies
 Spill-over concerns to the real economy, especially in the car industry
 Unjustified impact on benchmarks, as the same players also constitute the major indices
 Benefit of due diligence and research by each investor rather than fostering blind sheep
behaviors\"