In an obvious response to recent scandals that have plagued the hedge fund industry, Standard & Poor's has announced it is enhancing the criteria it used to rate hedge funds, HF managers, and fund of hedge fund managers. "The key revision in the updated criteria includes a greater focus on operational risk, including governance, legal, organizational and back-office issues," said S&P credit analyst Tanya Azarchs in a statement. "This is in line with the institutionalization of the market and Standard & Poor's increased focus on risk management." She added that the revised criteria place "greater emphasis on more in-depth quantitative analysis." Azarchs distinguished the goal of the new criteria with what other S&P units do. "We are rating to default on the credit obligation of the hedge funds. We are not offering an opinion on the future value of the shares in the fund or the creditworthiness of the assets within the fund." Azarchs concluded, "There is a good deal of confusion in the market as to what the rating agencies are doing with respect to hedge fund ratings and we see the issuance of our updated criteria...as an excellent way to explain our viewpoint."