Deven Sharma to step down as S&P president

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.