Rule 17g-6

Prohibited Acts and Practices

(a) Prohibitions. It shall be unlawful for a nationally recognized statistical rating organization (“rating organization”) to engage in any of the following unfair, coercive, or abusive practices:

(1) Conditioning or threatening to condition the issuance of a credit rating on the purchase by an obligor or issuer, or an affiliate of the obligor or issuer, of any other services or products, including pre-credit rating assessment products, of the rating organization or any person associated with the rating organization.

(2) Issuing, or offering or threatening to issue, a credit rating that is not determined in accordance with the rating organization’s established procedures and methodologies for determining credit ratings, based on whether the rated person, or an affiliate of the rated person, purchases or will purchase the credit rating or any other service or product of the rating organization or any person associated with the rating organization.

(3) Modifying, or offering or threatening to modify, a credit rating in a manner that is contrary to the rating organization’s established procedures and methodologies for modifying credit ratings based on whether the rated person, or an affiliate of the rated person, purchases or will purchase the credit rating or any other service or product of the rating organization or any person associated with the rating organization.

(4) Issuing or threatening to issue a lower credit rating, or lowering or threatening to lower an existing credit rating, or refusing to issue a credit rating or withdrawing a credit rating, with respect to securities or money market instruments issued by an asset pool or as part of any asset-backed or mortgage-backed securities transaction, unless a portion of the assets which comprise the asset pool or the asset-backed or mortgaged-backed securities also are rated by the rating organization. The prohibitions on refusing to issue a credit rating or withdrawing a credit rating shall not apply if the rating organization has rated less than 85% of the market value of the assets underlying the asset pool or the asset-backed or mortgage-backed securities.

(5) Issuing an unsolicited credit rating and communicating with the rated person to induce or attempt to induce the rated person to pay for the credit rating or any other service or product of the rating organization or a person associated with the rating organization.

(b) A rating organization refusing to issue a credit rating or withdrawing a credit rating with respect to an asset pool or the asset-backed or mortgaged-backed security must document in writing the reason for the refusal or withdrawal.