The Private Use of Credit Ratings: Evidence from Mutual Fund Investment Mandates

The Private Use of Credit Ratings: Evidence from Mutual Fund Investment Mandates

Ramin Baghai, Bo Becker, Stefan Pitschner

Series number :

Serial Number: 
612/2019

Date posted :

July 10 2019

Last revised :

February 24 2020
SSRN Share

Keywords

  • Credit ratings • 
  • investment mandates • 
  • delegated asset management • 
  • financial crisis

Credit ratings have been shown to be imperfect and sometimes biased measures of risk. Has this affected their use in unregulated settings? Using textual analysis, we measure the use of credit ratings in investment mandates of fixed income mutual funds, where ratings serve to limit investment in risky assets.

We find that this use has steadily increased from high initial levels over the past two decades. Fixed income markets’ extensive and continued reliance on credit ratings either points to a lack of practically useful alternatives, a positive view of ratings by market participants, or inefficient contracting.

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Authors

Real name:
Stefan Pitschner