Rating agencies win dismissal of Ohio funds lawsuit

The three major credit rating agencies won a fresh court victory as a federal appeals court rejected claims by five Ohio pension funds alleging that they lost hundreds of millions of dollars on risky mortgage debt because they relied on flawed ratings.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati upheld the Sept 2011 dismissal of the lawsuit against Moody's Corp's Moody's Investors Service, McGraw-Hill Cos' Standard & Poor's, and Fimalac SA's Fitch Ratings.

Pension funds led by the Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund had claimed to have lost $457 million by having made 308 investments in mortgage debt between January 1, 2005, and July 8, 2008, and relying on ratings they called "unfounded and unjustified."

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)