Moody’s Investors Service lowered the credit ratings on $5.2 billion of bonds backed by subprime mortgages and Standard & Poor’s said it may cut $12 billion of securities after criticism they waited too long to respond to rising home-loan defaults.

Moody’s cut ratings on 399 bonds issued in 2006 and said it may reduce rankings on another 32. S&P is preparing to lower the ratings on 2.1% of the $565.3 billion of subprime bonds issued from late 2005 through 2006, citing a deepening housing slump. U.S. Treasuries rose, the dollar slumped and financial company shares led stocks lower.

Ratings changes “are going to force a lot more people to come to Jesus,” an analyst at Institutional Risk Analytics in Hawthorne, Calif., Christopher Whalen, said. “When a ratings agency puts a whole class on watch, it will force all the credit officers to get off their butts and reevaluate everything. This could be one of the triggers we’ve been waiting for.” Investors criticized S&P, Moody’s, and Fitch Ratings because their ratings on bonds backed by mortgages to people with poor or limited credit don’t reflect the fastest default rate in a decade.