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From gatekeepers to gateway constructors: Credit rating agencies and the financialisation of housing associations

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  • Smyth, Stewart
  • Cole, Ian
  • Fields, Desiree

Abstract

This paper uses the twin metaphors of ‘gatekeeper’ and ‘gateway constructor’ as devices to explore the role of Credit Rating Agencies (CRAs) as intermediaries between global corporate finance and specific institutions – housing associations in England. The analysis utilises a financialisation framing, whereby the practices, logics and measurements of finance capital, increasingly permeate government, institutional and household behaviour and discourse. This paper examines how housing associations have increasingly resorted to corporate bond finance, partly in response to reductions in government funding, and in the process engaged with CRAs.

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  • Smyth, Stewart & Cole, Ian & Fields, Desiree, 2020. "From gatekeepers to gateway constructors: Credit rating agencies and the financialisation of housing associations," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:crpeac:v:71:y:2020:i:c:s1045235419300735
    DOI: 10.1016/j.cpa.2019.102093
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    Cited by:

    1. Graaf, Johan & Kraus, Kalle & Strömsten, Torkel, 2022. "The problematics of financialization – On the important (but neglected) horizontal axis of organizational action," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    2. Kamran Ahmed Siddiqui & Ishtiaq Ahmed Bajwa & Faisal Al-Hudithi & Tarig Eltayeb & Asma Khatoon & Suliman Bawardi, 2021. "Entrepreneurs' opinion towards credit rating in Saudi Arabia," Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues, VsI Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center, vol. 9(2), pages 186-197, December.

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