Risk & Control: Considerations on credit risk assessment devices and their implications for the standardization of Sovereign States and regulation of financial markets

Abstract

This article aims to question the role of credit risk rating agen- cies and their devices in redefining new cultural and institu- tional rules governing Sovereign State access to credit and in- vestments via the public securities market. Today, these states capitalize through the issuance of bonds in primary and secon- dary  markets,  decentralizing  credit  dependence  from  banks and multilateral institutions. The article highlights the specific way that credit rating agencies, which are objective producers of assessments and ratings for these sovereign states, have fir- mly grounded their positions and legitimized their constructs of control over markets and States. Based on documentary resear- ch and analysis tools extracted from the sociologies of perfor- mativity and classification, it is intended to question the status, density of normalization, and production of financial standards for Sovereign States.