The Last Word - Sen. Al Franken: 'Our financial system is kind of rigged'

[jakeXT]

5. Do you really want a honest rating agency?

China is set to offer its alternative to the big three US credit rating agencies, Moody's, Fitch, and Standard and Poor's. The Universal Credit Rating group is due to launch next month in Hong Kong, and is a joint Chinese, Russian, and American venture.

The US ratings agency Egan-Jones Ratings Co and Russian RusRating will become partners with Dagong Global Credit Rating in the undertaking. The new agency will start with around 20 analysts aiming to gradually grow to more than 100.

UCRG will be the second such venture based in Hong Kong after China Chengxin, which established an office in Hong Kong in August last year.

The project is aimed at boosting China’s influence on the global ratings system, and challenging the prevalence of the big American firms. The impartiality of their work has been questioned since the global financial crisis in 2008.

http://rt.com/business/chinese-ratings-agency-alternative-us-004/