“Credit rating agencies do not have the right to qualify countries, but only to deal with companies, and they do not perform well in that field either’ – stated András Giró-Szász, government spokesman in an interview with the Hungarian Television, discussing how Fitch had downgraded Hungary’s credit rating. “And this is not the government’s or the government spokesman’s opinion. This was stated by the governor of the Bank of France” – he added.
But in fact this is the government’s and the spokesman’s opinion even if Giró -Szász tries to misinterpret the facts. Christian Noyer, governor of the Bank of France and board member of the European Central Bank criticized the credit rating agencies in May 2010 because they often signal too late, thus making problems even worse. He stated this after the agencies downgraded Ireland, Portugal and Spain. So Noyer did not dispute the legitimacy of the ’downgrades’ but their timing: in his view this should have happened earlier. Noyer claimed that the credit rating agencies did not provide information to the market but confirmed the market’s confidence loss. Noyer did not mention that the credit rating agencies did not have the right to qualify countries for sure.
Now we have to matters at hand here. The first is that the credit rating agencies took Noyer’s advice and they downgrade problematic countries in time, then András Giró -Szász should shut his mouth and react to their legitimate criticism. The second matter: if they did not take his advice and they downgrade problematic countries late, then András Giró -Szász should shut his mouth because he should have reacted to the market’s criticism much earlier. Otherwise, if it is already mentioned: What exactly is covered by Giró-Szász’s license?
http://orulunkvincent.blog.hu/2011/11/12/giro_szasz_andras_leminositette_a_fitch_et