Credit Writedowns

Editors note: Moody’s released the following press release yesterday in conjunction with a ratings action it took on Turkish sovereign debt. Moody’s Investors Service has today upgraded Turkey’s government bond ratings by one notch to Baa3 from Ba1, and has assigned a stable outlook. The key drivers for today’s rating action are: 1. Recent and expected future improvements in key [...]

Moody’s Investors Service released the following statement in conjunction with a ratings action it took today on Slovenian sovereign debt.

Moody’s Investors Service has today affirmed the Republic of Ireland’s Ba1/Not Prime government bond ratings and negative outlook.

Moody’s issued the following press release yesterday in relation to Argentina’s foreign-law sovereign obligations.

Moody’s released the following statement in conjunction with a ratings action it took earlier today on three Dutch banks

For domestic investors, the safe haven asset class are government liabilities if the government has substantially all liabilities in the currency it creates. For foreign investors, like domestic investors, you want to protect against default risk by investing in a currency area’s risk-free asset class but you also want to mitigate currency risk. That’s what safe haven risk is all about. The other stuff is irrelevant.

So what is a safe haven you might ask? Well I certainly don’t have the final answer, but I would suppose it should as many as the following characteristics as possible.

Here are 10 items that investors will be watching this week.

Moody’s took away the UK’s triple A rating late Friday. A ratings downgrade has long been rumored, and although the timing is always surprising, the move itself has long been anticipated. Sterling slumped on the news in thin dealings, losing a cent in about 30 minutes. When it comes to corporate ratings we can appreciate that rating agencies may have access to private information. They may also be of value in some developing countries, where information is more difficult to secure. However, when it comes to large developed countries, the rating agencies have access only to public information and it is the same information that investors use to make their decisions.

downgraded the domestic- and foreign-currency government bond ratings of the United Kingdom by one notch to Aa1 from Aaa. The outlook on the ratings is now stable.

Moody’s Investors Service has today downgraded Croatia’s government bond rating to Ba1 from Baa3. Moody’s has also changed the outlook to stable from negative.

Moody’s Investor Service released the following note in conjunction with a ratings action it took on Canadian banks today.