ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet may be unwilling to cede to Angela Merkel’s calls to overrule ratings’ agencies judgement on a Greek default – selective or otherwise. However, Mr Trichet’s position on the big three’s dominance of the industry is in line with that of the eurozone’s political masters.

At both this month’s press conference and in an interview published Tuesday, Mr Trichet made it clear he agreed with German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble’s point that the oligopolistic structure of the industry was far from ideal.

When asked whether he would favour the creation of a European rating agency – something which Ms Merkel has backed since before Lehman Brothers’ collapse – Mr Trichet was more oblique. Read more