London - Revenues and margins at Europe's "Big Three" credit rating agencies (CRAs) are back to pre-financial crisis levels and the trio are in line for more business, despite a welter of new rules aimed at reducing their influence, a regulator said on Monday.
Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch came under fire when securitised debt they rated highly turned toxic from 2007, sowing the seeds for a global market meltdown and costly bank bailouts.
Lawmakers on both sides of the Atlantic passed a raft of rules to better supervise the agencies and the United States even banned the use of ratings in some instances.