Hong Leong Finance also alleges the US investment firm profited from the products' failure at the expense of investors.

BBC: Morgan Stanley sued over a product 'designed to fail'

"If the question has become when, and not if, a lawsuit will be filed against Moody's, then the shares are simply unbuyable, in our view, " an analyst at US investment firm BTIG, Mark Palmer, told Reuters.

BBC: Moody's shares fall amid rating agency legal fears

The announcement is part of an investment by US firm Avalanche.

BBC: Warning over NI investment decisions

It was bought by the Brunswick Corporation in 2001 and was sold to another US firm, Oxford Investment Group, in 2011.

BBC: Sealine workers 'could get compensation' says union

To investigate the investment success of crowds, The Economist asked Morningstar, an investment-research firm, to send us fund-flow data and performance statistics for its American mutual-fund range.

ECONOMIST: Investors tend to chase the latest fad

Last year, a leading US-based sector-focused firm used deal diagnostics to sharpen the definition of its investment core and assess opportunities to grow beyond it.

FORBES: Top Private Equity Funds Mine Past Wins For Lessons

Looking ahead, the investment firm said the global economic outlook remained "fragile", despite some encouraging data from the US labour and housing markets.

BBC: Alliance Trust in direct equity move

The US-based Omidyar Network, the brainchild of eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and wife Pam, is a philanthropic investment firm dedicated to harnessing the power of markets to create opportunities for people to improve their lives and it has gone into partnership with BRAC in Sierra Leone and Liberia.

BBC: Motives for investing: Profit or altruism?