Il ‘valore’ del rating nelle regolazioni pubbliche : regolare il mercato del rating o superare il rating?

Rating has taken on importance as a ‘normative parameter’ in public regulations in time. Its role as a regulatory instrument (“regulating by rating”) has been challenged by the financial crisis and its impact on the Credit Rating Agencies’ reliability. This paper highlights the complex interplay between public and private regulation, focusing, on the one side, on the decision of public regulators and policymakers to turn to ‘the market’ and employ the rating as a normative measure of the credit risk, and on the other on the need to increase the accountability and the independence of the CRAs as well as to regulate their activities. In this respect the paper deals with two main questions: whether and to what extent CRAs, as private market actors, can be regulated, and whether and how the reliance on rating in public regulations can be reduced to go beyond a rating-based regulation.