The Hong Kong Court of Appeal has dismissed an application by Moody’s Investors Service for leave to appeal against the Securities and Futures Commission’s disciplinary action in relation to a special comment report that the credit rating agency published in 2011.

The SFC began to regulate credit rating agencies (giving them 'type 10' licences) in 2011, the year in which the offending report, entitled “Red Flags for Emerging-Market Companies: A Focus on China,” came out. Last year, the SFC ordered Moody’s Investors Service to pay a penalty of HK$11 million ($1.4 million) after a Hong Kong tribunal upheld the regulator's decision to levy the charge.

Moody’s made its application to take its case to the Court of Final Appeal after the Court of Appeal dismissed its appeal against the determination of the Securities and Futures Appeals Tribunal in March 2016 in favour of the SFC’s previous decision to reprimand and fine the rating agency for breaching its regulatory code of conduct.