(Image Source:TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA /  NPR)

BY MELLISSA ORIBHABOR

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Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s has been a hot name in the headlines since downgrading the U.S. long-term credit rating. Recently, president Deven Sharma resigned from the agency. He had served as its head since 2007.

Video: Bloomberg

Sharma will be replaced by Douglas Peterson, who has been working as the Cheif Operating Officer of Citigroup. Peterson was brought in to take charge of Citigroup in Japan in 2004 after the Japanese government shut down its operations. Here’s Fortune.

“The bank was banned from participating in government bond auctions and from accepting foreign currency deposits from new customers. The FSA told the pressthat Citi gave profits ‘undue importance’ and cultivated a ‘law-evading sales system that disregards the laws and regulations of Japan.”

Peterson was able to salvage Citigroup’s standing in Japan. As a result of his success overseas, he was promoted in 2010 to COO of Citibank in New York. Peterson joins S&P at a critical time - as it faces trouble of its own. Here’s CNN on that.

“The US government is looking into allegations that analysts wanted to give lower ratings to mortgage backed securities may have been overruled by S&P managers.”

Harold "Terry" McGraw III -- president and chief executive of S&P’s parent company McGraw-Hill -- has thrown his support behind the hire, saying Peterson is quote:

“...an outstanding global leader [who] has tremendous breadth across financial and capital markets and is a proven operating and strategic executive who has successfully built businesses in multiple markets.”

Although Sharma’s departure comes as S&P is shrouded in controversy, representatives of McGraw-Hill said the decision has been in the works for the past year. Peterson will take his post as president on Sept. 12.

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Transcript by Newsy.