As much as $7 trillion of debt piled up by banks falls due by the end of 2012, which could force them to refinance their borrowings at higher cost, the Wall Street Journal said, citing a Moody's Investors Service report.

The three major credit ratings agencies gave mortgage-backed securities unjustifiably high ratings in return for lucrative fees, losing at least $457 million for five Ohio public employee pension and retirement funds, the state's attorney general alleged in a lawsuit filed Friday.

Moody's Investors Service on Wednesday raised its rating on Nasdaq OMX to investment grade from junk status, citing success in diversifying revenues, integrating mergers and boosting profits.

McGraw-Hill is committed to its Standard & Poor's unit, and welcomes tougher regulation aimed at further transparency and accountability in the credit ratings industry, its chairman said on Wednesday.

As CEO and primary shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK), Warren Buffett, the world's most famous investor, has developed a well-known reputation of buying big stakes in companies he believes in. When Buffett buys shares of a company for BRK, the markets translate his moves as a vote of confidence for a firm's continued success. Although Berkshire Hathaway's holdings change, the company's most recent SEC filings* reveal where the Oracle of Omaha is most heavily invested. Here are the 15 publicly traded stocks, by value, that are the biggest holdings of Berkshire Hathaway.

Reform of rating agencies is badly needed as there is a culture of carelessness towards the law which needs challenging, Eric Kolchinsky, a former analyst at Moody's who has accused the agency of issuing inflated ratings, told CNBC Friday.

From the entire S&P 500, which stocks are analysts expecting to have the biggest pops? With data from ThomsonReuters, we took a look at which stocks have consensus estimates farthest above their stock prices (as of market close on 9/30/09).

Ratings agencies need to adopt universal standards to prevent the kinds of abuses that helped fuel the collapse of the credit markets, an industry whistleblower told CNBC.

The Securities and Exchange Commission spends a lot of time and money trying to discover insider trading in stocks. But when it comes to structured financial products — the funny securities that were at the heart of the financial crisis — it has just adopted a proposal that will facilitate such trading, says the NYT's Floyd Norris.

Out here in Germany the debate about bad banks is heating up. Is our model actually working? Is the shifting of toxic assets from banks’ balance sheets into as specially created bad banks, the right answer to stabilize the financial system?

Stocks declined Wednesday as weak demand for today's Treasury auction and a sharp drop in oil prices dragged on the market. A disappointing durable-goods report didn't help either.

Stocks declined Wednesday after a report showed a much sharper drop in durable-goods orders than expected. Plus, a sharp selloff in China dragged on oil prices, which also weighed on the market.

Futures tumbled Wednesday after a report showed a much sharper drop in durable-goods orders than expected. Plus, a sharp selloff in China dragged on oil prices, which also weighed on the market.

The Obama administration on Tuesday sent Congress legislation seeking to tighten government oversight of Wall Street's credit rating agencies and stem potential conflicts of interest in their business practices to protect investors.

Crisis-stricken Ireland's debt rating has been downgraded by Moody's amid mounting worries about the country's public finances and the cost of the government's bailout of the banking system.