madam president i should like to say to the commissioner that now and in her coming work programme she will be dealing with the financial crisis
this crisis has hit different countries around europe in different ways but one thing is certain the financial institutions in all countries have to some degree or other bought toxic us mortgage debt based on subprime lending
do you know to what extent europeans have bought devices such as cdos which had been represented to them as having a certain rating by the american rating companies but which in fact on subsequent examination after they blew up proved to be toxic bonds
they were found to be dodgy projects
it seems to me that there must have been wholesale misrepresentation of the quality of the debt by these agencies for such a huge amount of it to have been sold so easily
i would like to know if the facts about the claims made when selling these devices have been examined yet by the commission and if so to what extent is it thought they have been misrepresented
if this is the case i would also like to know if the commission thinks that there is any recourse in law against the rating agencies for those who have suffered from their negligence or worse since at this stage our whole financial structure has been attacked by them
