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<p>Credit rating systems are complex processes and involve mainly two parties; a company and a bank. The complexity of a relationship between a company and a bank lies in the fact that a company usually has access to more information about the company than the bank. Hence, an auditor acts as a third party who validates the information involved in credit rating processes. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore how auditing is being used in credit rating processes and to identify the role auditing has. In addition, this study recognizes the use of auditing in both Denmark and Sweden, with a goal to compare and explore the differences between the countries.</p><p>In order to collect secondary data, Danish and Swedish banks were interviewed. To be able to explore the rather newly discovered relationship between auditing and credit rating processes, this study was carried out with an exploratory research design. In addition, this study is based on assumptions stated in the Agency Theory, the Positive Accounting Theory and the Stakeholder Model. Because the intention was to use existing theories, a deductive research approach was suitable.</p><p>The empirical findings imply that auditing is being used in banks’ credit rating processes to validate the information and to reduce the risk. The trustworthiness of auditors and the relationship between a company and a bank influence banks’ perceptions regarding the creditworthiness of companies. The role of auditing is rather common in Denmark and Sweden, whereas the amount of accessible information is higher in Sweden than in Denmark. The pattern is that more information diminishes the risk and implies that the role of auditing is less important.</p><p>This study is limited to only taking the bank’s perceptions of auditing into consideration, leaving out other stakeholders. Moreover, the examination is restricted to Danish and Swedish banks. The findings are interesting for banks and small companies to consider, because they explain the importance of auditing other components such as customer relationship. As a conclusion, the findings would be appropriate for Swedish banks to review in order to evaluate possible consequences of the statutory audit.</p>

Credit rating systems are complex processes and involve mainly two parties; a company and a bank. The complexity of a relationship between a company and a bank lies in the fact that a company usually has access to more information about the company than the bank. Hence, an auditor acts as a third party who validates the information involved in credit rating processes. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore how auditing is being used in credit rating processes and to identify the role auditing has. In addition, this study recognizes the use of auditing in both Denmark and Sweden, with a goal to compare and explore the differences between the countries. In order to collect secondary data, Danish and Swedish banks were interviewed. To be able to explore the rather newly discovered relationship between auditing and credit rating processes, this study was carried out with an exploratory research design. In addition, this study is based on assumptions stated in the Agency Theory, the Positive Accounting Theory and the Stakeholder Model. Because the intention was to use existing theories, a deductive research approach was suitable. The empirical findings imply that auditing is being used in banks’ credit rating processes to validate the information and to reduce the risk. The trustworthiness of auditors and the relationship between a company and a bank influence banks’ perceptions regarding the creditworthiness of companies. The role of auditing is rather common in Denmark and Sweden, whereas the amount of accessible information is higher in Sweden than in Denmark. The pattern is that more information diminishes the risk and implies that the role of auditing is less important. This study is limited to only taking the bank’s perceptions of auditing into consideration, leaving out other stakeholders. Moreover, the examination is restricted to Danish and Swedish banks. The findings are interesting for banks and small companies to consider, because they explain the importance of auditing other components such as customer relationship. As a conclusion, the findings would be appropriate for Swedish banks to review in order to evaluate possible consequences of the statutory audit.

The credit rating industry is characterised by the high concentration of a small number of firms and, allegedly, this concentration stems from certain anticompetitive behaviours made manifest by the dominant firms in the industry. Therefore, as has yet to be done in empirical research, the purpose of this study is to carry out an exploration of the antitrust behaviours supposedly perpetuated by agents in the credit rating process for debt finance. The aim is to determine what influences, if any, the interactions and relationships in the rating process have on the sustenance of the oligopoly in the rating industry and on impeding new rating agencies trying to enter the market. Through the application of thematic analysis, this study aims to gather evidence on the behavioural motivations of rating analysts and underwriters in the rating process. Furthermore, the theoretical framework suggests notching and tying to be the anticompetitive behaviours that strengthen the oligopoly. Hence, the study finds that the drivers of anticompetitive notching in the rating process are the taking of haircuts and mapping, the guise of protecting investors’ interests, punitive ratings and a quid pro quo rating norm. Similarly, it finds that the enablers of anticompetitive tying are continuous dealing in the rating process, covert negotiation, repeat rating requests, ancillary services and the regulatory overdependence on credit ratings. In addition, this thesis explores the impediments of new rating agencies trying to enter the credit rating industry and finds that new rating agencies face peculiar market, regulatory and organisational barriers. Firstly, the market barriers comprise arbitrage, economic rents, investor preference and the issuer-pay model. Secondly, the regulatory barriers are discretionary regulation, new regulations and the designation of nationally recognised statistical rating organisation status. Lastly, the organisational barriers include down-trading, inadequate funding, the lack of geographic spread, low added intellectual value and a narrow product and service scope. Finally, this research recommends for regulatory authorities to agree to a harmonised convention on the recognition of credit rating agencies that may lead to the emergence of new robust agencies. It also proposes the standardisation of mapping practices in the notching process to reduce rating variance among credit rating agencies. Lastly, the research offers evidence of notching for competition and tying through informal services that may substantiate antitrust liability for possible antitrust intervention.

In measuring second language learners’ writing proficiency, test takers’ performance on a particular assessment task is evaluated by raters using a set of criteria to generate writing scores. The scores are used by teachers, students, and parents to make inferences about their performance levels in real-life writing situations. To examine the accuracy of this inference, it is imperative that we investigate the sources of measurement error involved in the writing score. It is also important to ensure rater consistency, both within a single rater and between raters, to provide evidence that the scores are valid indicators of tested constructs. This mixed methods research addressed the validity of integrated listening-to-write (L-W) scores. More specifically, it examined the generalizability of L-W scores and raters’ decision-making processes and scoring challenges. A total of 198 high school English learners in Taiwan completed up to two L-W tasks, each of which required them to listen to an academic lecture and respond to a related writing prompt in English. Nine raters who had experience teaching English evaluated each student’s written materials using a holistic scale. This study employed a univariate two-facet random effects generalizability study (p × t × r) to investigate the effects of tasks and raters on the score variance. Subsequent decision studies (p × T × R) estimated standard error of measurement and generalizability coefficients. Post-rating stimulated recall interview data were analyzed qualitatively to explore raters’ alignment of rating scale descriptors, decision-making behaviors, and scoring challenges. The results indicated that the majority of score variance was explained by test takers’ ability difference in academic writing proficiency. The raters were similar in their stringency and did not contribute much to score variance. Due to a relatively large magnitude of person-by-task interaction effect, increasing the number of tasks, rather than raters, resulted in a much lower degree of error and higher degree of score generalizability. The ideal assessment procedure to achieve an acceptable level of score generalizability would be to administer two L-W tasks scored by two raters. When evaluating written materials for L-W tasks, nine raters primarily focused on the content of the essays and paid less attention to language-related features. The raters did not equally consider all aspects of essay features described in the holistic rubric. The most prominent scoring challenges included 1) assigning a holistic score while balancing students’ listening comprehension skills and writing proficiency and 2) assessing the degree of students’ successful reproduction of lecture content. The findings of this study have practical and theoretical implications for integrated writing assessments for high school EFL learners.

Kreditvärderingsinstitut arbetar med att göra analyser och bedömningar om vad bolag har för kreditvärdighet genom att tilldela ett kreditbetyg. Bolagen kan välja vilket kreditbetyg de vill publicera till allmänheten. Kreditbetygen används som ett verktyg på obligationsmarknaden för att prissätta dessa, och har därför betydelse för fastighetsbolagens kreditvärdighet. Obligationsmarknaden är en viktig finansieringskälla för större fastighetsbolag. Syftet med detta arbete är att ge läsaren en övergripande bild av de dominerande kreditvärderingsinstituten på den svenska fastighetsmarknaden och eventuella likheter, skillnader och potentiella svagheter. Detta för att identifiera eventuella påföljder som de dominerande kreditvärderingsinstituten kan medföra. Arbetet utgår från både kvalitativ och kvantitativ metod. Den kvalitativa metoden består av ett teoretiskt ramverk som innehåller institutens betygsskalor, kreditvärderingsprocess, policys och disclaimer. Kvantitativa metoden innefattar mejlintervjuer, som skickats ut till 30 svenska fastighetsbolag med publika kreditbetyg. Resultaten visar att det finns likheter, skillnader och svagheter mellan de olika kreditvärderingsinstituten. Trots dominerande likheter hos instituten visade resultatet från mejlintervjuerna en skillnad på fyra betygssteg i snitt-kreditbetyg hos fastighetsföretagen och skillnader i kreditbetyg till Danske Bank. Likheterna och skillnaderna kan leda till svagheter som att fastighetsbolag betalar mycket pengar för ett eller flera kreditbetyg som instituten inte tar ansvar över, och som investerare eventuellt fattar investeringsbeslut baserat på. / Credit rating agencies work to make analyzers and assessments of what companies' creditworthiness is by assigning a credit rating. Companies can choose which credit ratings they want to publish to the public. The credit ratings are used as a tool for obligations to price these and are important for the real estate companies' creditworthiness. Liabilities market is an important source of financing for major real estate companies.   The purpose of this Bachelor Thesis is to give the reader an overall picture of the dominant credit rating agency in the Swedish real estate market and point out any similarities, differences and potential weaknesses. This is to identify any penalties that the dominant credit rating agencies may incur. This work is based on both qualitative and quantitative methods. The qualitative method consists of a theoretical framework that contains the institutions' grading scales, credit rating process, policies and disclaimer. The quantitative method includes email interviews, which have been sent out to 30 Swedish real estate companies with public credit ratings.  Results show that there are similarities, differences and weaknesses between the different credit rating agencies. The dominant similarities between the institutions showed the results from the email interviews and the difference between four rating steps in the average credit rating of the real estate companies and differences in credit ratings to Danske Bank. The similarities and differences can lead to weaknesses such as real estate companies paying a lot of money for one or more credit ratings, which the institutions do not take responsibility for, and on which investors may make investment decisions based on.

This thesis deals with the action and impact of the credit rating agencies in the capital markets during the financial crisis. The work is divided into two parts; the first part stresses the importance of a proper understanding of the rating, its characteristics, functions, users and the rating process. The emphasis is put on the market analysis of ratings and rating agencies in the U.S. and European market. The second part of this work is devoted to examining the issue of rating agencies during the crisis, which contributed to the spread of the financial crisis, criticism relevant issues and regulatory arrangements.

Au niveau méthodologique, ce travail innove en combinant plusieurs moyens d'observation complémentaires sur le processus d'écriture et sur le processus de correction. Les observations qualitatives ainsi recueillies sont retranscrites en les combinant selon l'ordre chronologique d'apparition, puis elles sont traitées et analysées sous le logiciel QDA Miner. / De nos jours, la compétence à écrire ne se limite plus aux habiletés développées dans l’usage du papier-crayon traditionnel. Le traitement de texte est omniprésent et tend à devenir indispensable à l’individu dans les situations authentiques d’écriture. Évaluer la compétence à écrire uniquement sur la base de productions manuscrites suscite alors des interrogations pour des raisons d’authenticité et de validité dans la perspective de Messick (1989). Des études ont du reste révélé que les élèves habitués à l’ordinateur ont de meilleures performances en modalité informatisée (traitement de texte) qu’en modalité manuscrite (Russell et Haney, 2000). Il convient cependant de mieux connaître les deux modalités d’évaluation, l’une par rapport à l’autre. Le processus d’écriture est-il modifié chez le scripteur ? Les conditions de passation sont-elles équivalentes? Faut-il désactiver les correcticiels? Le processus de correction se déroule-t-il de la même manière chez l’enseignant ? Les deux modalités d’évaluation conduisent-elles à des résultats équivalents ? Ce sont là des questions de recherche au centre du présent travail qui a pour objectif de faire une comparaison entre modalités d’évaluation manuscrite et informatisée à l’aide de productions écrites d’élèves de cinquième année secondaire au Québec. Le cadre théorique repose sur deux concepts-clés : processus d’écriture et évaluation de l’écrit. La méthode adoptée est à la fois quantitative et qualitative. Deux tâches d’écriture déjà retenues à l’épreuve unique d’écriture en français du MELS ont été utilisées pour administrer respectivement un test en modalité informatisée et un autre en modalité manuscrite à 127 élèves provenant de deux écoles. Dans la première, il s’agit d’un programme ordinaire avec accès aux TIC. Les correcticiels y étaient désactivés. Dans la deuxième, il s’agit d’un programme favorisant particulièrement les TIC dans l’apprentissage. Dans ce groupe, les correcticiels étaient accessibles. Trois scripteurs étaient observés en modalité informatisée et deux en modalité manuscrite. Les moyens utilisés (verbalisation et caméra vidéo pour les deux modalités, capteur d’écran en plus pour la modalité informatisée) permettaient de recueillir des observations sur le processus d’écriture. En outre, pour recueillir des observations sur le processus de correction, grâce à la verbalisation et une caméra vidéo, deux enseignants étaient observés en cours de tâche en modalité de correction papier-imprimé, un autre correcteur en modalité de correction à l’écran et tous les trois en modalité papier-manuscrit. Des observations qualitatives sur les stratégies d’écriture et de correction étaient ainsi collectées puis retranscrites. Les scores attribués par les mêmes correcteurs en appliquant la grille de correction du MELS aux 254 copies (127 manuscrites, 77 imprimées et 50 à l’écran) ont été analysés. D’abord, l’analyse des observations recueillies sur le processus d’écriture révèle des stratégies déployées exclusivement en modalité informatisée et des stratégies qui y sont plus fréquentes. Ces stratégies relevant de sous-processus différents, la fréquence de leur déploiement en modalité informatisée implique des va-et-vient plus fréquents entre sous-processus distincts lorsque le scripteur utilise le traitement de texte. On peut alors déduire que le caractère récursif du processus rédactionnel est plus marqué en modalité informatisée. Ensuite, les résultats de l’analyse des données sur le processus de correction révèlent que : 1) Le correcteur identifie non seulement les erreurs, mais aussi les éléments pertinents positifs, ce qui remet en cause les cadres conceptuels antérieurs focalisés sur la détection des seules erreurs; 2) La modalité de correction n’a pas d’effet sur les stratégies d’identification d’éléments pertinents, mais les stratégies de rétroaction varient d’une modalité de correction à l’autre. Enfin, au niveau de la comparabilité des scores, l’analyse statistique suggère que : 1) La modalité de production et le programme de formation ont un effet; 2) l’activation des correcticiels a un effet positif faible alors que leur désactivation a un effet négatif important. / Writing skills are no longer limited to those developed in performing paper-and-pencil tasks. Word processing is ubiquitous and becomes indispensable in writing authentic situations. In Messick (1989) perspective, writing assessment that is based on handwritten documents raises authenticity and validity problems. For instance, some studies have revealed that students who use to write with a computer perform better in word processing test conditions than on handwriting conditions (Russell and Haney, 2000). We need to better understand the impact of using a computer for a test as opposed to administering paper-and-pencil test: Is the writing process modified? Are the testing conditions equivalent? Should spell and grammar check software be disabled? Is the assessment process different when the reader has to rate in different modes of presentation - handwritten essays or word processed essays that are either printed or displayed on the screen? Do both assessment methods lead to equivalent results? The purpose of this study is to compare Grade 11 Quebec students’ writing assessments based on essays written with a computer versus handwritten essays. The conceptual framework is built on the concepts of Writing process and Writing assessment. The approach is both quantitative and qualitative. Two writing tasks previously used in the Grade 11MELS French writing exam were used to administer a test with a computer and a paper-and-pencil test. The sample consisted of 127 students from two schools. In the first school, students are enrolled in a regular program with access to ICTs and the spell and grammar check software was disabled. In the second school, ICT use is fully integrated in teaching and learning. In this group, the spell and grammar check software was available. Three writers were observed in the computer mode and two in the handwritten mode. Observations on the writing process were collected in three ways - verbalization and video camera for both modes, screen capture added in computerized mode. In addition, to collect data on the assessment process, the three teachers were observed during the rating task by two means (think-aloud and video camera) in different modes of presentation: two assessed a set of paper essays, one a set of paper that were displayed on the screen and three a set of manuscript essays. Qualitative observations on the writing process and the assessment process were collected and transcribed. Quantitative data consisted of scores given by the three raters using the MELS correction grid. 254 essays (127 handwritten, 77 word-processed and printed, 50 word-processed and displayed on the screen), were analyzed. First, the analysis of the qualitative data on the writing process revealed that some strategies from different writing sub-processes involved in word processing are used exclusively or more frequently when the writer uses a computer. Their application means moving more frequently between different sub-processes when the writer uses the word processor. Therefore, the writing process is more recursive with word processing. Then, the analysis of the quantitative data on assessment process revealed that : 1) the teacher not only identifies errors and problems in text; he also identifies positive features in the essay. This is important because previous frameworks focused on the errors detection; 2) The difference in the mode of presentation does not influence rater’s strategies in the detection of relevant features. Finally, as far as the comparability of scores is concerned, the statistical analysis revealed that: 1) Both the way an essay is produced (word processing or handwriting) and the type of program influence the outcome; 2) Enabling the spell and grammar check software seems to has a small impact whereas disabling it has an important impact.

De nos jours, la compétence à écrire ne se limite plus aux habiletés développées dans l’usage du papier-crayon traditionnel. Le traitement de texte est omniprésent et tend à devenir indispensable à l’individu dans les situations authentiques d’écriture. Évaluer la compétence à écrire uniquement sur la base de productions manuscrites suscite alors des interrogations pour des raisons d’authenticité et de validité dans la perspective de Messick (1989). Des études ont du reste révélé que les élèves habitués à l’ordinateur ont de meilleures performances en modalité informatisée (traitement de texte) qu’en modalité manuscrite (Russell et Haney, 2000). Il convient cependant de mieux connaître les deux modalités d’évaluation, l’une par rapport à l’autre. Le processus d’écriture est-il modifié chez le scripteur ? Les conditions de passation sont-elles équivalentes? Faut-il désactiver les correcticiels? Le processus de correction se déroule-t-il de la même manière chez l’enseignant ? Les deux modalités d’évaluation conduisent-elles à des résultats équivalents ? Ce sont là des questions de recherche au centre du présent travail qui a pour objectif de faire une comparaison entre modalités d’évaluation manuscrite et informatisée à l’aide de productions écrites d’élèves de cinquième année secondaire au Québec. Le cadre théorique repose sur deux concepts-clés : processus d’écriture et évaluation de l’écrit. La méthode adoptée est à la fois quantitative et qualitative. Deux tâches d’écriture déjà retenues à l’épreuve unique d’écriture en français du MELS ont été utilisées pour administrer respectivement un test en modalité informatisée et un autre en modalité manuscrite à 127 élèves provenant de deux écoles. Dans la première, il s’agit d’un programme ordinaire avec accès aux TIC. Les correcticiels y étaient désactivés. Dans la deuxième, il s’agit d’un programme favorisant particulièrement les TIC dans l’apprentissage. Dans ce groupe, les correcticiels étaient accessibles. Trois scripteurs étaient observés en modalité informatisée et deux en modalité manuscrite. Les moyens utilisés (verbalisation et caméra vidéo pour les deux modalités, capteur d’écran en plus pour la modalité informatisée) permettaient de recueillir des observations sur le processus d’écriture. En outre, pour recueillir des observations sur le processus de correction, grâce à la verbalisation et une caméra vidéo, deux enseignants étaient observés en cours de tâche en modalité de correction papier-imprimé, un autre correcteur en modalité de correction à l’écran et tous les trois en modalité papier-manuscrit. Des observations qualitatives sur les stratégies d’écriture et de correction étaient ainsi collectées puis retranscrites. Les scores attribués par les mêmes correcteurs en appliquant la grille de correction du MELS aux 254 copies (127 manuscrites, 77 imprimées et 50 à l’écran) ont été analysés. D’abord, l’analyse des observations recueillies sur le processus d’écriture révèle des stratégies déployées exclusivement en modalité informatisée et des stratégies qui y sont plus fréquentes. Ces stratégies relevant de sous-processus différents, la fréquence de leur déploiement en modalité informatisée implique des va-et-vient plus fréquents entre sous-processus distincts lorsque le scripteur utilise le traitement de texte. On peut alors déduire que le caractère récursif du processus rédactionnel est plus marqué en modalité informatisée. Ensuite, les résultats de l’analyse des données sur le processus de correction révèlent que : 1) Le correcteur identifie non seulement les erreurs, mais aussi les éléments pertinents positifs, ce qui remet en cause les cadres conceptuels antérieurs focalisés sur la détection des seules erreurs; 2) La modalité de correction n’a pas d’effet sur les stratégies d’identification d’éléments pertinents, mais les stratégies de rétroaction varient d’une modalité de correction à l’autre. Enfin, au niveau de la comparabilité des scores, l’analyse statistique suggère que : 1) La modalité de production et le programme de formation ont un effet; 2) l’activation des correcticiels a un effet positif faible alors que leur désactivation a un effet négatif important. / Writing skills are no longer limited to those developed in performing paper-and-pencil tasks. Word processing is ubiquitous and becomes indispensable in writing authentic situations. In Messick (1989) perspective, writing assessment that is based on handwritten documents raises authenticity and validity problems. For instance, some studies have revealed that students who use to write with a computer perform better in word processing test conditions than on handwriting conditions (Russell and Haney, 2000). We need to better understand the impact of using a computer for a test as opposed to administering paper-and-pencil test: Is the writing process modified? Are the testing conditions equivalent? Should spell and grammar check software be disabled? Is the assessment process different when the reader has to rate in different modes of presentation - handwritten essays or word processed essays that are either printed or displayed on the screen? Do both assessment methods lead to equivalent results? The purpose of this study is to compare Grade 11 Quebec students’ writing assessments based on essays written with a computer versus handwritten essays. The conceptual framework is built on the concepts of Writing process and Writing assessment. The approach is both quantitative and qualitative. Two writing tasks previously used in the Grade 11MELS French writing exam were used to administer a test with a computer and a paper-and-pencil test. The sample consisted of 127 students from two schools. In the first school, students are enrolled in a regular program with access to ICTs and the spell and grammar check software was disabled. In the second school, ICT use is fully integrated in teaching and learning. In this group, the spell and grammar check software was available. Three writers were observed in the computer mode and two in the handwritten mode. Observations on the writing process were collected in three ways - verbalization and video camera for both modes, screen capture added in computerized mode. In addition, to collect data on the assessment process, the three teachers were observed during the rating task by two means (think-aloud and video camera) in different modes of presentation: two assessed a set of paper essays, one a set of paper that were displayed on the screen and three a set of manuscript essays. Qualitative observations on the writing process and the assessment process were collected and transcribed. Quantitative data consisted of scores given by the three raters using the MELS correction grid. 254 essays (127 handwritten, 77 word-processed and printed, 50 word-processed and displayed on the screen), were analyzed. First, the analysis of the qualitative data on the writing process revealed that some strategies from different writing sub-processes involved in word processing are used exclusively or more frequently when the writer uses a computer. Their application means moving more frequently between different sub-processes when the writer uses the word processor. Therefore, the writing process is more recursive with word processing. Then, the analysis of the quantitative data on assessment process revealed that : 1) the teacher not only identifies errors and problems in text; he also identifies positive features in the essay. This is important because previous frameworks focused on the errors detection; 2) The difference in the mode of presentation does not influence rater’s strategies in the detection of relevant features. Finally, as far as the comparability of scores is concerned, the statistical analysis revealed that: 1) Both the way an essay is produced (word processing or handwriting) and the type of program influence the outcome; 2) Enabling the spell and grammar check software seems to has a small impact whereas disabling it has an important impact. / Au niveau méthodologique, ce travail innove en combinant plusieurs moyens d'observation complémentaires sur le processus d'écriture et sur le processus de correction. Les observations qualitatives ainsi recueillies sont retranscrites en les combinant selon l'ordre chronologique d'apparition, puis elles sont traitées et analysées sous le logiciel QDA Miner.

This thesis deals with globalisation of markets. It focuses on examining the economic crisis of 2008 and 2010 and on how individual countries can cope with deteriorating of macroeconomic values, especially with financial implications of this situation. The thesis also examines credit rating agencies as indicators of financial soundness of investment instruments, to which is often reffered as to culprits of the crisis for their reaction to the development of the mortgage market. The thesis defines the rating in the concept of sovereign states and describes the market of credit rating agencies. It further evaluates individual rating agencies and practices in the context of the crisis, bringing a comprehensive picture of the role they played at the beginning of the crisis. It also attempts to outline more points of view on the previously unilaterally and predominantly negatively perceived issue of reputation of credit rating agencies.