Мера направлена на выяснение, правильно ли агентства выставляют свои рейтинги в ходе работы.

Поводом послужили две жалобы, обвиняющие агентства в преднамеренной манипуляции.

The measure is aimed at «verifying whether these agencies respect regulations as they carry out their work,» Carlo Maria Capistro, who heads the prosecutors' office in the southern town of Trani which is leading the probe, told Reuters.

The Trani prosecutors have opened two probes — one for each rating agency — after a complaint by two consumer groups over the impact of their reports about Italy on Milan stock prices.

The first complaint was filed against Moody's after it published a report in May 2010 about the risk of contagion for Italian banks from the Greek crisis.

A second complaint filed in May this year targeted Standard & Poor's after it threatened to downgrade Italy's credit rating because of its huge public debt.