2011-08-23 05:14:47
2:39, Tuesday 23 August 2011
(Reuters) - Deven Sharma will step down as president of ratings agency Standard
& Poor's to work on the company's strategic portfolio review before leaving the
company at the end of the year.
Sharma will be replaced as president of the ratings agency by Douglas Peterson,
chief operating officer of Citibank effective September 12, S&P's parent
company McGraw-Hill Companies Inc said in a statement.
The company said it began a search for a new president for S&P after the
company split S&P into two separate organizations at the end of last year.
The Financial Times, which first reported news of Sharma's resignation, said
his resignation is not related to S&P's downgrade of the United States' credit
rating or reports that the agency is being probed by the U.S. Justice
Department in connection with its ratings of mortgage securities.
S&P has been under fire from lawmakers, market players and the U.S. Treasury
Department since its decision to cut the U.S. credit rating earlier this month,
and just last week, news emerged that the Justice Department is investigating
the firm over its actions on mortgages leading up to the financial crisis.
The board of McGraw-Hill Companies made the decision to replace Sharma at a
meeting where it also discussed its ongoing strategic review on Monday, the
Financial Times said.
McGraw-Hill directors and executives met on Monday with Jana Partners LLC, a
hedge fund, and the Ontario Teacher's Pension Fund to hear their arguments that
the company should be broken up.
(Reporting by Abhishek Takle in Bangalore; Editing by Gary Hill)
Standard & Poor s chef avg r
Kreditv rderingsinstitutet Standard & Poor s chef Deven Sharma avg r och ers
tts av Citibankchefen Douglas Peterson. Standard & Poor s, som nyligen f r f
rsta g ngen n gonsin skrev ner USA:s kreditbetyg, har kritiserats h rt av
amerikanska myndigheter.
Fr n och med den 12 september kommer Deven Sharma att f specialuppgifter
inom f retaget innan han slutar helt vid rsskiftet.
I b rjan av augusti s nkte Standard & Poor s USA:s kreditbetyg fr n toppbetyget
AAA till AA+. Republikaner och demokrater hade d efter en l ng politisk strid
precis kommit verens om ett enormt sparpaket.
USA:s finansminister Timothy Geithner sade i en intervju med NBC att institutet
visat fruktansv rt d ligt omd me i bed mningen av USA:s ekonomi. Standard &
Poor s anklagades ven av politiker f r att ha gjort ett r knefel p 2.000
miljarder dollar.
Kreditv rderingsinstitutet n mnde dock inte ifall tisdagens beslut att byta
chef h nger samman med nedskrivningen av kreditbetyget och den f ljande
kritiken, rapporterar BBC.