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The bond sale yesterday came two days after the country was forced to suspend the original transaction in the face of Moody's unexpected downgrade by two notches. That day, some US$12.5bn of orders had been listed.

"It's scandalous. It shouldn't be allowed to happen," IFR Markets quotes one of portfolio managers as saying. "The credibility of ratings agencies is eroded by actions such as these."

According to the opinion piece, market participants were especially angered that Moody's was kept informed of the transaction's schedule, and was even understood to have held a credit committee meeting on the Friday beforehand, yet chose not to disclose its decision until the offering was in full flow.

Moreover, it took Slovenia's leads, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan, and the Slovenian Finance Ministry some time to get hold of the relevant Moody's analysts to find out what exactly was going on, according to IFR Markets.

Reportedly, Moody's declined to answer specific questions but said in a statement that the timing of rating actions was based on its continuous monitoring of an issuer's credit quality.

It added that its standard practice was to inform an issuer prior to a rating announcement, explaining the rationale for the decision and releasing it as soon as practicable in accordance with regulatory requirements, IFR Markets says.