We study the effect of conflicts of interest on credit ratings and analyze the rating maintenance of credit rating agencies for various clienteles. By examining the rating-transition path, we found that rating agencies favor their valued clients by stepwise downgrades and full and timely upgrades. Favored clients could, therefore, save capital cost and possibly gain a larger investor base for their new issues. However, such rating behavior would undermine the rating quality and reputation of rating agencies in the long term.
Our results provide evidence for the meager literature on rating-agency conflicts from the rating-maintenance perspective. Our findings also lend support to the growing literature that rating agencies do not provide quality services to investors when the regulation is indulgent or the competition within the rating industry is severe.

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