Credit Rating Agencies: Using Historical Research to Reveal a Cultural Pattern

The leading Credit Rating Agencies facilitated the Financial Crisis of 2008. As a result, extensive reforms were enacted to limit the negative effect of the agencies upon the marketplace, and therefore society. However, the agencies continue to transgress, and have become even more profitable and impenetrable. In order to provide some insight to why the agencies behave in the way that they do, this article will utilise historical research to present a teleological demonstration that there is an underlying culture that prevails through each era and is the foundation for their callous disregard to the safety of the financial system. Revealing this culture may then enable us to think differently when we discuss how best to regulate this unique sector of the financial arena.