Re-tuning a rating agency

THE regulatory burden isn't one that can easily be shaken off, as Douglas Peterson may tell you. The chief executive of McGraw Hill Financial took on the position in 2013, just two years after he joined the company as head of its largest business, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services (S&P). Today, the rating agency has come under the more watchful eyes of US regulators, given the wariness around the role of rating agencies in the sub-prime crisis some eight years ago.

Still, considering that Mr Peterson spent 26 years at Citigroup, the scrutiny from regulators appears to be a familiar cross to bear.

"When I first joined S&P, the business was newly regulated. But I had come from a business environment where I had been regulated my entire career," says Mr Peterson, who had …