The EU is to set out contentious plans to clamp down on the "oligopoly" of the three main credit ratings agencies and encourage newer European rivals.
On Friday the author of the proposals, EU internal market commissioner Michel Barnier, fired a shot across the bows of the dominant US trio of agencies after the hugely embarrassing error committed by Standard & Poor's on Thursday, when it issued a downgrade of French sovereign debt by mistake.
Barnier, who will unveil his plans on Tuesday, said pointedly that they would create a European framework for civil liability "in the case of serious misconduct or gross negligence" indicating that this was especially relevant in the current case.
"This incident is serious and shows that in the current tense and volatile market situation, market players must exercise discipline and demonstrate a special sense of responsibility," he said. "This is all the more important since we are not talking about just any market player but one of the biggest rating agencies."
The EU has been gunning for the agencies – S&P, Moody's and Fitch since the financial crisis of 2008, with anger coming to a head last year when Greek debt was downgraded during tense negotiations on the country's first €110bn bailout.
The third assault on their pre-eminence in as many years will be three-pronged. First, customers will be forced to change agency every three years, or after 10 consecutive bond issues, and not return to the same one for four years.
