About one-third of U.S. local governments may have their credit rating raised by Standard & Poor’s under a new methodology that the company is proposing.
The change would affect about 3,800 issuers, S&P said in a report today. About 65 percent of ratings may remain unchanged, while 3 percent could drop, typically by one level, under the plan, S&P said.
The new criteria would use the same framework as the company applies to local and regional governments outside the U.S., S&P said.
In 2010, Moody’s Investors Service moved its U.S. municipal ratings to a global scale to grade munis similarly to issuers such as corporations. About 70,000 ratings were subject to that adjustment, according to a Moody’s statement.
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