"Douglas Peterson’s highest priority as the new president of Standard & Poor’s will be to restore confidence in the credit-ratings process amid criticism over how the firm handled the downgrade of the U.S. and new probes into how it evaluated mortgage bonds. “S&P is in crisis mode,” said Richard Torrenzano, a former member of the management committee at the New York Stock Exchange and now chief executive officer of the Torrenzano Group in New York. “They’re going to have to set and state public standards for their ratings, and they will need to bring in outside experts to help set standards. They’re in for a rough time in the barrel over the next six to nine months.” Peterson, Citibank NA’s chief operating officer, is taking over as president of S&P from Deven Sharma, 55, who will leave at the end of the year to “pursue other opportunities,” S&P’s parent McGraw-Hill Cos. said in an e-mailed statement late yesterday. Peterson, 53, will start Sept. 12 and Sharma will work on the company’s strategic review in the meantime."

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S&P Hires Peterson to Restore Ratings Confidence as Sharma Sets Departure - Bloomberg

I know I feel more confident in the veracity of the agency ratings now that I know they won’t be going after sacred cows anymore.