The reliance on credit ratings has granted a high level of influence and political power to CRAs. Although there is a large number of CRAs, only three of them collect more than 90% of the market share. These are Moody's, Standard & Poor's, and Fitch.

Credit rating agencies have been criticized for their performance in important crises such as the Asian and Russian financial crisis of the late 1990s and the recent global financial crisis that started in 2008. During these events, CRAs exacerbated imbalances, taking too much time to react or to predict default events, and then they reacted excessively, with severe downgrades.

For example, in the most recent financial crisis, European economies were downgraded by an average of three notches. Greece and Italy were among the most severely affected countries.