Man Who Knew Too Much on Ratings Says They Aren’t Meaningful

Ratings companies, whose scores have helped determine the cost of money for governments and businesses for more than a century, are no longer trusted by the world’s biggest investors, according to the former head of structured finance at Standard & Poor’s.

“They’re there because people have to have them, not because people believe in them,” David Jacob, who was fired from S&P in December, said in an interview at Bloomberg headquarters in New York. “Maybe retail investors do, that’s the unfortunate part, but I think institutional investors don’t.”