The Securities and Exchange Commission has issued a notice to S & P regarding its rating of a $1.6bn deal. The SEC may seek monetary penalties, if it finds S & P guilty of misleading investors after giving triple A ratings to a collateralised debt obligation (CDO) called 'Delphinus CDO 2007-1'.

McGraw-Hill, the company which owns Standard and Poor said is cooperatign with the commission.

Rating agencies in general have been under scrutiny after issuing for issuing their safest ratings scores of mortgage-related securities only to downgrade many of them only months later.