The on-going crunch in the credit markets has been riveting. You can read all about it over on FierceFinance [1]. According to some, the villians in all this are the credit ratings agencies. The notion of reform, for better or worse, is in the air, as it always seems to be with these firms. People are now talking about better disclosure of methodologies and relationships from these agencies, something like a mini-Sabanes Oxley. The thought that independent auditors need to get involved has also cropped up. And then there's the notion that audit committees at issuers ought to oversee the rating agency relationship. It's unclear how much of this will come to pass. Probably not much. But the language and proposals all reflect Sarbanes Oxley.  

For more:
- here's background [2] from the Wall Street Journal

Related articles:
- Credit-rating agency reform in the works [3]
- Credit rating agencies in harsh spotlight [4]
- More criticism of credit rating agencies [5]