The SEC is looking at Standard & Poor's decision last year to pull its rating on a commercial-mortgage-backed security being issued by Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Though the investigation is part of the SEC's annual review of credit rating firms, S&P's last-minute decision on the $1.5 billion deal threw the commercial mortgage-backed securities market into disarray. The SEC will determine if S&P's standards were less strict for new CMBS than for other deals.

S&P proposed new criteria for ratings on CMBS earlier this month.

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