Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin said in a statement today. Caroline Creighton, a spokeswoman for Toronto-based DBRS, said the company was reviewing the request and would respond “if and when necessary.”
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro also is reviewing life settlements, where investors buy policies and pay the premiums until the seller’s death. The investors then collect the proceeds. Schapiro said yesterday the SEC had formed a task force to scrutinize instances when Wall Street firms package the policies into bonds and sell them to investors.
“Bundling the policies to create another investment opportunity closely parallels the subprime mortgage market and subsequent meltdown, whose effects investors are still reeling from,” said Galvin, the state’s chief financial regulator, in the statement.
This info came from the article titled:
Massachusetts Reviews DBRS Grades on Life Settlements
Source: Bloomberg (Jamie McGee and Hugh Son)
