A federal judge
allowed a lawsuit for civil fraud to continue against credit rating agency Standard & Poor's. The lawsuit relates to S&P's credit ratings on $2.8 trillion worth of residential mortgage backed securities (RMBS) and $1.2 trillion worth of collateralized debt obligations (CDOs)
from September 2004 to October 2007. S&P is accused of artificially
inflating the credit rating of debt instruments in order to win more
fees from issuers and bankers.