Standard & Poor’s Governance Services said today that it will no longer provide public corporate governance scores for U.S. companies, and it withdrew its corporate governance score on Fannie Mae.

Earlier, Standard & Poor’s lowered Fannie Mae’s governance score, a move it said was made to reflect deterioration in the timeliness of disclosure as the company works to complete its financial restatement.

Standard & Poor’s says it will continue to monitor Fannie Mae’s corporate governance practices as part of its normal credit rating surveillance. It has historically factored management and governance issues into its ratings processes, and in March 2004 introduced a risk-based approach to determine cases where additional governance reviews may be needed.

Corporate governance scores are solicited by companies themselves and are distinct from governance commentary, which may be published from time to time, and which forms part of Standard & Poor’s credit rating analysis. Corporate governance scores are also distinct from credit ratings; changes to a company’s CGS will not necessarily impact a company’s credit rating as the credit rating and the CGS are two separate processes.