30/03/2021 (Agence Europe) – The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) announced on Tuesday, 30 March, that it had fined five entities of the American credit rating agency Moody’s a total of €3.7 million for breaches of provisions of the Credit Ratings Agencies Regulation regarding the avoidance of conflicts of interest. The UK branch received the heaviest fine (€2.735 million), followed by the German branch (€340,000), the French branch (€280,000), and the Italian and Spanish branches (€174,000 each). In particular, these entities are accused of having violated the ban on issuing new ratings when a shareholder is from a credit rating agency and exceeds the 10% ownership threshold or is a board member of the rated entity. According to the ESMA, all violations were found to be the result of negligence on the part of Moody’s. See the decision: https://bit.ly/2QHEUKK (MF)