NEW: S&P fired one of its employees, Andrew Park, after he briefed Senate Banking Committee staff on the growing risks in the $1.2 trillion market for loans that finance private-equity buyouts wsj.com/articles/s-p-f…
The coronavirus pandemic made Mr. Park’s warnings look prescient. Downgrades of loans owed by heavily indebted corporations have spiked sharply since February, eclipsing levels seen during the financial crisis 
One of the risks he flagged to Senate staffers was "rating shopping," where issuers of bonds backed by risky corporate loans shop around for the best ratings, leaving a patchwork of missing grades. Here's an example of what he was seeing in this market.
Rating shopping is taboo topic in the ratings industry. It is also a concern for investors because it can lead to ratings inflation. wsj.com/articles/infla…
After Sen. Sherrod Brown wrote a letter to banking regulators in December asking for more oversight of this market, one of S&P's lobbyists reached out to Mr. Park to inquire about his Senate meeting. brown.senate.gov/newsroom/press…
Mr. Park has filed a wrongful-termination complaint against S&P for firing him and has since joined @RealBankReform as a policy research analyst; S&P says it did nothing wrong and will vigorously defend against his complaint.
All of this is playing out as the SEC's Investor Advisory Committee is getting ready to hold a panel on credit ratings later today - here's more info on that: sec.gov/spotlight/inve…
