The SEC acts against the rating agencies

The only problem is that it has not acted against Moody's and the big rating agencies.  It's gone after a firm I've never heard of, Egan-Jones.  Egan-Jones makes its money from those who use its ratings. The big agencies get paid by the issuer, which is one of the reasons why their ratings were so skewed towards the Lake Woebegon proportions that were a major factor leading to the Great Recession.

The SEC is going after Egan-Jones because of problems with the firm's application to be a "nationally recognized statistical ratings organization."  The firm claims that one application matter stems from a different method of counting the number of ratings they had made. The other SEC concern involves investments in securities being rated; the firm claims these investments were of long-standing and were brought to the SEC's attention.  

It's possible these matters were sufficient to deny the firm's application. But the real question is why the SEC is going after a piddling firm and is doing nada about the big guys.  It looks like the major ratings agencies have been evaluated as TBTBI, Too Big To Be Indicted.