Securities regulators Friday voiced optimism about finding common ground on monitoring credit rating agencies at The International Organization of Securities Commissions, or IOSCO.

Regulators Friday made a public pledge to work together, but didn't detail specifics as to whether this would involve an exchange of information, or recognize different regimes.

"I am heartened to hear Eddy Wymeersch favor a global approach," Ethiopis Tafara, the Securities and Exchange Commission's director of international affairs, said during a panel debate.

Tafara was addressing comments made by Wymeersch, who is chairman of the Committee of European Securities Regulators, or CESR, and more broadly to regulatory efforts underway internationally.

Credit-ratings agencies such as Standard & Poor's Corp., Moody's Corp. (MCO) and Fitch Ratings have been blamed by some critics for exacerbating the financial crisis after giving overly positive ratings to certain kinds of debt, including some backed by subprime mortgages.

"We cannot have rating on same securities different in different parts of the world; it's not sensible - ratings have to have same content," Wymeersch said.

S&P's U.S. president Deven Sharma expressed gratification that regulators seem willing to pursue coordination jointly.

"It is a huge encouragement that there is a recognition that global consistency is so critical, and we also want to emphasize consistency across the market," Sharma said.

-By Katharina Bart, Dow Jones Newswires; +41 43 443 8043; katharina.bart@dowjones.com