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The IOSCO document describes provisions that rating agencies should incorporate into their own codes of conduct to deal with issues such as how rating agencies should avoid or mitigate potential conflicts of interest, improve the transparency of the ratings process, and protect their integrity and independence while dealing fairly with issuers, investors and other market participants.
Rating agencies must disclose how they implement the various provisions of the Code Fundamentals. The Task Force expects CRAs to give full effect to the Code Fundamentals. At the same time, investors, issuers, regulators and other market participants will be able to assess in each case whether a given rating agency has implemented the Code Fundamentals to their satisfaction, and react accordingly.
On October 6, the Task Force published a consultation paper which sought comment from the public on an earlier draft of the Code Fundamentals. IOSCO received 39 comment letters from issuers, rating agencies, industry associations, financial institutions and individual investors from around the world.