[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1445 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1445

  To amend the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to require nationally 
   registered statistical rating organizations to provide additional 
     disclosures with respect to the rating of certain structured 
                  securities, and for other purposes.


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                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 11, 2009

 Mr. McHenry introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Financial Services

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                                 A BILL


 
  To amend the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to require nationally 
   registered statistical rating organizations to provide additional 
     disclosures with respect to the rating of certain structured 
                  securities, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Credit Rating Agency Transparency 
and Disclosure Act''.

SEC. 2. ADDITIONAL RATINGS BASIS DISCLOSURES FOR STRUCTURED SECURITIES.

    Section 15E(c) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 
78o-7(c)) is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraphs:
            ``(3) Disclosures with respect to structured securities.--
                    ``(A) Regulations required.--The rules and 
                regulations prescribed by the Commission pursuant to 
                this title with respect to nationally recognized 
                statistical rating organizations shall, with respect to 
                the procedures and methodologies by which any 
                nationally recognized statistical rating organization 
                determines credit ratings for structured securities--
                            ``(i) specify the information required to 
                        be disclosed to such rating organizations by 
                        the originators, issuers, and underwriters of 
                        such structured securities on the collateral 
                        underlying such structured securities; and
                            ``(ii) establish and implement procedures 
                        to collect and disclose information about the 
                        processes used by such originators, issuers, 
                        and underwriters to assess the accuracy and 
                        integrity of their data and fraud detection.
                    ``(B) Definition.--For purposes of this paragraph, 
                the Commission shall, by rule or regulation, define the 
                term `structured securities' as appropriate in the 
                public interest and for the protection of investors.
            ``(4) Historical default rate disclosures.--The rules and 
        regulations prescribed by the Commission pursuant to this title 
        with respect to nationally recognized statistical rating 
        organizations shall require each nationally recognized 
        statistical rating organization to establish and maintain, on a 
        publicly accessible Internet site, a facility to disclose, in a 
        central database, the historical default rates of all classes 
        of financial products rated by such organization.''.
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