Moody's to fix sub-prime computer error

Moody's, the ratings agency, is reviewing its computer models and setting up a central monitoring system after admitting that a bug led it to incorrectly grade several European mortgage debt instruments. The agency admits that it incorrectly gave its highest AAA rating to about $1bn worth of European "constant proportion debt …

[OneArmJack]

A bug? My arse

They've been caught mis-rating CDOs and so are blaming it on a bug; how convenient. And who will they be disciplining, the coders or the QA team?

[Chris]

Aktually

It was a bug - they didn't annualise monthly volatility, thowing their assumptions off by a factor of sqrt(12).

The scandal was that once they spotted the error, they then changed the ratings process so that it got rated AAA anyway. They actually discarded a proposed change because "it didn't help the rating".

And yes, the head of structured finance got fired, not (just) some idiot coder.

[Nick Drew]

'A bug'

Riiiight. So it had nothing to do with Moody's competing with other ratings agencies such as S&Ps for business, and essentially offering higher ratings in return for this business? Or indeed, being slack in their jobs and not bothering to really explore the possible risks of these financial instruments? Covering their arses after the fact, more like...

[amanfromMars]

A Timely Word ........ for the bug is not a bug, it is an deeply embedded viral infection

"They've been caught mis-rating CDOs and so are blaming it on a bug; how convenient. " ... By OneArmJack Posted Thursday 3rd July 2008 09:30 GMT

A net of asps/gang of crooks and thieves /nest of vipers in deed, indeed, OneArmJack. And their business model cannot be fixed for Future Fitness Purpose, as it needs to be replaced with an entirely different one, if they want to survive in their bubbles/ivory towers.

And until such times will they continue to haemorrhage billions, further reinforcing with a lack of intelligent foresight, their crooked nature, for the Capitalist System has been hacked to its Core Algorithm and will invariably be milked mercilessly to set up and finance its replacement, in the Control of Parties which are a great deal smarter than they are imagined by even the richest of bankers.

If the existing blinkered players were at all clever, they would be investing in the Change Agents, so that they can at least be their Proxies rather than being exposed to the anger of oppressed customers as the Change progresses and the serial deceits are exposed.

[Anonymous Coward]

moody?

who the hell would trust a company called "moody" to do anything important? Sounds more like a rubbish night club.

[Anonymous Coward]

PMT

'They didn't annualise monthly volatility' No wonder there Moody!

[Funky Dennis]

Models

If you think that implementation bugs are the beginning and end of problems in high finance, may your buy-to-let property turn into a crack den that smells of wee. All models are riddled with dubious assumptions.

[Mark Roome]

I seriously misread that title

and thought Optimus Prime was going to fix the Moody computers (and all related moody users)

[Stevie]

4 Chris

But I don't think anyone has yet gone to jail, which should certainly have happened. Not for the original bug. For the -c-o-v-e-r-u-p- "normalisation" that took place afterwards.

What really makes me mad is that this costs me every which way, and the perps walk away scot free.

[Anonymous Coward]

Eron 2.0

Look some else changing the rules/cooking the books. I say if you get caught, you strap a flak jacket on you, put you on a plane, push you out over Iraq, and drop and m16 out the air plane. Parachute optional.