美国金融学教授 Erik Gordon 提出疑问，当前的信用评级现状是否正让人产生类似 2008 年金融危机前的既视感，当时银行利用监管套利和信用评级来减少面对违约风险时所必须持有的资本准备金。现今，类似的监管套利正发生在私募信贷与保险领域，保险集团已将大量资金投入不透明且流动性差的私募信贷工具中。

为评估这些不透明资产，保险公司日益依赖 Morningstar、Egan-Jones 和 Kroll 等机构提供的私募信用评级，而非传统大型评级机构。国际清算银行与经济学家警告，这些私募评级普遍存在系统性高估，高估了安全度并允许保险公司调低资本准备金，研究估计保险业因此面临每年约 45 亿美元的资本短缺。

尽管目前信用违约率较低且监管机构的警觉性高于以往，使得类似 2008 年的系统性危机不太可能重演，但此现象显示金融家对监管套利的依赖未减。作者呼吁监管机构如全美保险监理官协会（NAIC）应勇敢公开更新的评级研究报告，加强对私募信贷领域的公众监督，以防范隐患逐步滚雪球般扩大。

American finance professor Erik Gordon raised the question of whether we are experiencing déjà vu reminiscent of the pre-2008 financial crisis, when banks exploited regulatory arbitrage and credit ratings to reduce required capital reserves. Today, a similar form of regulatory arbitrage is unfolding in the private credit and insurance sectors, where insurance groups have shifted significant funds into opaque and illiquid credit instruments.

To evaluate these opaque assets, insurance firms increasingly rely on private credit ratings from agencies like Morningstar, Egan-Jones, and Kroll instead of traditional majors. The Bank for International Settlements and economists warn that these private ratings are systematically inflated, creating a false sense of safety that allows insurers to reduce capital reserves, with research estimating a capital shortfall of $4.5 billion annually.

Although low default rates and heightened regulatory vigilance make a 2008-style systemic shock unlikely, this trend reveals that financiers remain addicted to regulatory arbitrage. The author calls on regulators like the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) to release updated research reports and demands greater public scrutiny of the private credit market to prevent risks from snowballing.