The Regional Council for Public Savings and Financial Markets (CREPMF) has raised the possibility of admitting international rating agencies to the financial market of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA). The issue was discussed at the end of July during the last meeting between the regulator and the issuers. The idea would be to submit the proposal to the next WAEMU Council of Ministers.

Thus, CREPMF instruction 37/2009 relating to the conditions for operating the rating agency on the WAMU financial market and stipulating that “in the context of public offering operations, issuers can only use, when applying for a visa, the ratings issued by approved rating agencies”, is in great danger of death by distortion.

Contacted by us, the CREPMF reassures: "although the rating was the subject of exchange, during the work of the meeting with the issuers, the texts framing it have not been, at this stage, the subject of 'no modification ', we are told.

If this proposal, which does not meet with unanimous approval, passes, Standard and Poor's, Fitch, Moody's and the other so-called international agencies will be able to rate issuers on the WAEMU financial market without undergoing the approval process. The decision, which is unexpected to say the least, would open up an avenue for these large agencies, which will thus be able to access a market without formal counterparties. Of course the reverse is unimaginable. No African agency could rate an entity in the markets of origin of these agencies, a fortiori without approval.

In any case, Wara and Bloomfield, two agencies which had to obtain their approvals and submit to regulations as soon as the major reform of the regional financial market, can legitimately cry out against unfair competition. Having become the Regional Authority for Public Savings and Financial Markets (AREPMF), thanks to the 21st WAEMU conference, the CREPMF must be committed to consolidating the market through common rules, so as not to create distortion of competition between regional and international rating agencies. Community preference, which makes sense in the USA and in Europe, should not be interpreted upside down in a market that has suddenly become attractive to these large agencies, which had shunned it in the not so distant past.