Finance Minister Francois Baroin said Thursday that ratings agency Standard & Poor's should be punished after it sent out an erroneous email announcing that France's cherished top rating had been cut. "It really ... creates unacceptable damage and you can't have powerful economic responsibilities without, when there's an error, sanctions adapted to the impact of the reality of what happened" Baroin said.
France's Financial Markets Authority (AMF) said on November 10 that it had opened a probe, as demanded by Baroin, within hours of the ratings agency sending out an email announcing the downgrade of France's top AAA rating. The email added to market turmoil over the spreading eurozone debt crisis.
S&P said on November 11 that its erroneous downgrade of France arose when an automatic email was sent out after an old web page on French banks was changed. With European officials calling for a crackdown on the behaviour and power of ratings agencies, S&P explained that the emailed downgrade announcement was an accident related to a test adjustment left on its client website last year. S&P has since reiterated France's rating of "AAA/A-1+' with a stable outlook."