S&P Sends Incorrect Credit Ratings

Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s is in hot water after sending out a series of messages with incorrect information regarding changes to countries’ credit ratings. On Thursday, S&P sent subscribers a message that it was upgrading Brazil’s credit rating to BBB-, when it had actually upgraded the country from a BBB- to a BBB. The mistake followed an incident last week, when the company sent a message to subscribers that it was downgrading France’s triple-A rating, which was not the case. After the market appeared to reject S&P’s downgrade of the U.S. credit rating in August, the incorrect messages have caused further damage to S&P’s credibility.