Japan Center for International Finance (JCIF), 1999, "Characteristics and Appraisal of Major Rating Companies," Available at: www.jcif.or.jp.
As a result, the former (S&P and Moody's) assign lower ratings than the latter (see also JCIF, 1999).
Surveying seven major domestic and foreign raging agencies' sovereign rating actions on 60 countries between 1996 and 2000, the JCIF found that S&P changed ratings 78 times, followed by Thomson Financial BankWatch, 68 times, and Moody's Investors Service Inc.
S&P, which lowered its long-term local and foreign currency credit ratings on Japan on Thursday to double-A-plus from triple-A, changes its ratings more frequently than other agencies as it reacts to affecting factors more flexibly, said the JCIF, a government-affiliated economic research institute.
