S&P president steps downs

Newsroom 23/08/2011 | 12:17

Standard & Poor’s president Deven Sharma is stepping down, only weeks after the rating agency downgraded the top notch credit rating of the United States to AA+.

The parent company of S&P, McGraw-Hill, stated that Deven Sharma will be replaced by the chief operating officer of Citibank, Douglas Peterson. Peterson will take over the helm of S&P starting September 12. Sharma will stay on as an adviser at the parent company until the end of the year. ‘

Harold McGraw III, CEO of McGraw-Hill, said that “S&P will continue to produce ratings that are comparable, forward looking and transparent”. However, no reference was made to allegations that S&P improperly rated dozens of mortgage securities in the years leading up to the financial crisis in 2008. The investigation is conducted by the Justice Department and saw the shares of McGraw-Hill tumble last week on this information.

Standard & Poor’s rating for the United States was dropped to AA+ on August 5, while other major rating agencies have maintained their AAA ratings of the U.S. The Obama administration criticised the downgrade, saying that the agency’s analysis was flawed.

Sharma joined S&P in 2006 and was named president the following year. Before that, he was executive vice president, global strategy, at McGraw-Hill for five years.
Peterson was the CEO of Citigroup Japan before taking on his current role at that company.