FRANKFURT, Dec 14 (Reuters) - The European Central Bank should be given guaranteed access to credit rating agency data to ensure it can perform its financial stability duties, the central bank said.
"The ECB appreciates the arrangements for the exchange of information set out in the proposed new Article 27 of Regulation," it said in a legal opinion dated Nov. 19 and published on the ECB's Internet site on Tuesday.
"Nevertheless, the ECB recommends that this provision should expressly ensure the access by the ESCB and the ECB, as well as the specified Member State authorities, to the information relevant for the exercise of their statutory tasks."
The ECB also said new regulations covering rating agencies should ensure a level playing field, and added that the new requirements are to some extent similar to those applied in the United States.
But it said there may still be sizable problems in credit rating agencies' ability to issue unsolicited credit ratings, and the issue of rating shopping was not resolved.
"The possibility of obtaining multiple credit ratings could allow issuers to select the most favourable one ... might negatively impact the quality of the ratings issued," the ECB said in the legal opinion document, which was signed by ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet. (Reporting by Sakari Suoninen; Editing by Hugh Lawson)