The civil liability of credit rating agencies in South African law: recent developments in comparative perspective

The losses caused by the on-going financial crisis now exceed $4 trillion. This is in addition to the associated social and economic costs that are more difficult to measure. From a litigator’s perspective it is not surprising that these massive losses have triggered a very large number of civil claims. In the immediate aftermath of the crisis these claims were mostly run-of-the-mill misrepresentation actions by investors against their investment advisors, but there is now a clear, global trend where plaintiffs are casting their nets more widely and going after the financial actors allegedly responsible for the crisis itself. One class of defendants who fit squarely in this category are credit rating agencies. These financial actors are facing a global push by lawmakers to regulate their operations with, inter alia, the express aim of setting parameters for the liability ratings agencies should incur in the publication of ratings.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Commercial Law

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Thompson, Simon

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Jooste, Richard

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/9155

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/9155