PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Richard Johnson TI - Rating Agency Actions Around the Investment-Grade Boundary AID - 10.3905/jfi.2004.391025 DP - 2004 Mar 31 TA - The Journal of Fixed Income PG - 25--37 VI - 13 IP - 4 4099 - https://pm-research.com/content/13/4/25.short 4100 - https://pm-research.com/content/13/4/25.full AB - Recent defaults of large U.S. firms have prompted debate over whether credit rating agencies were slow to spot these firms’ problems. This examination of ratings data from nationally recognized statistical rating organizations (NRSROs) and from a non-recognized agency contributes more information. There is some tendency for NRSRO one-day downgrades starting from the lowest investment-grade, BBB–, to travel more grades than downgrades from neighboring grades. This could suggest either that default risk at the NRSRO grade BBB– is high, or that downgrades to junk status damage firms. A comparison of data from a non-NRSRO agency and an NRSRO shows that the NRSRO regrades from BBB– moved toward the non-NRSRO's earlier ratings. This suggests the non-NRSRO defines its grade BBB– more narrowly than the NRSRO.