Last week Banking Day reported on the recent inclusions in the Wall St Reform Bill that would in effect 'nationalise' credit rating agencies. But in the meantime a regulatory change to the Credit Rating Agency Reform Act of 2006, being implemented by the SEC, has been little unnoticed. Effective from June 2, any information given to a ratings agency to rate a securitisation transaction must be placed on a secure website, accessible to all other CRAs. In addition, all information received over the life of the securitisation must be placed on the site.The intention of the regulatory amendment is to ensure that possible conflicts of interest in the rating of securitisation transactions are minimised by all information relevant to the transaction being made available to all other CRAs. The assumption is that other CRAs will vet the information to assess whether they agree with the ratings assigned, or not.It will be interesting to see whether the CRAs will be happy to effectively undertake ratings of securitisation transactions free of charge. Perhaps smaller CRAs, looking to increase market share, may take up this challenge.One such smaller CRA may be Morningstar. It had been planning to enter the US market for securitisation ratings starting from scratch but recently acquired Realpoint, a provider of ratings on CMBS transactions. Morningstar will now use Realpoint as the platform for building its securitisation rating business. It also announced in December that it would commence providing credit ratings on large US corporations. In any event, until late last week, it looked as if the new regulation would be applied globally with the potential to severely disrupt the nascent recovery in local securitisation markets. The requirement to place ratings information on a secure website and issuer concerns over confidentiality would inevitably slow down the rating process and add to the cost, if not kill off the market altogether.The SEC granted a last minute reprieve, exempting non-US issuers from the requirement where the CRA has a reasonable basis to believe the rated securities will not be sold in the US. The exemption will apply until December 2. In the meantime, the SEC will consult further with the industry about the global application of the regulation.