Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox arranged the meeting to inform Sen. Schumer, a New York Democrat, on its progress in mulling new rules to better monitor rating companies, the Journal said, citing a person familiar with the matter.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sen. Charles Schumer met the SEC chairman to urge the regulatory agency to step up its scrutiny of conflicts of interest that may have played a role in bond rating companies' misses on the U.S. housing market, the Wall Street Journal said on Wednesday.
Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox arranged the meeting to inform Sen. Schumer, a New York Democrat, on its progress in mulling new rules to better monitor rating companies, the Journal said, citing a person familiar with the matter.
During the meeting, Sen. Schumer asked the SEC to find out if Moody's Corp <MCO.N> changed ratings analysts on specific deals at Wall Street bond issuers' request, the report said.
Moody's was not immediately available for comment.
!ADVERTISEMENT!Rating companies such as Moody's and Standard & Poor's have been criticized by regulators for fuelling the U.S. housing market boom and subsequent downfall by assigning overly optimistic ratings to risky securities and downgrading them soon after.
Since the subprime meltdown, the SEC has been scrutinizing credit raters' role in the financial crisis and whether they were influenced by companies and underwriters.
The SEC was not immediately available for comment.
(Reporting by Aarthi Sivaraman; Editing by David Holmes)
