No one took them seriously, at least back in 2000-2002 when I was producing the shit that helped initiate the first crisis (CDOs). People would say things like, "Well, we can get Fitch to rate it AAA but it will be harder to get S&P or Moody's to do it." Granted, with the S&P downgrade I think more people are pointing to Fitch as though they are just as rigorous as S&P (or even more so), when in fact they have always been more lax. After all, they had to gain acceptance because they're so much newer. I even remember a party after a CDO closed where a person was embarrassed to say they worked for Fitch.