Regulators may charge Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC with violating federal securities laws when it gave top ratings in 2007 to a repackaged mortgage bond that soon tanked, Reuters reported.

A U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) action against S&P would be one of the first by the commission against a major rating agency in the wake of the financial crisis, Reuters said.

S&P parent McGraw-Hill Cos. Inc. said it might have to pay civil penalties to the SEC. McGraw-Hill shares were down 2.2 percent in morning trading.

The SEC investigation comes as McGraw-Hill prepares to split into two publicly traded companies, one holding S&P and market information services, and the other holding the company’s textbook publishing business.

Institutional shareholders, led by Jana Partners, have pushed the conglomerate to further break itself up, completely severing S&P’s ratings business from its analysis and information operations.

McGraw-Hill said today that it received a notice Sept. 22 that SEC staff might recommend action against S&P.

At issue is a 2007 collateralized debt obligation that a Senate subcommittee report in April cited as a “striking example” of a security moving from top ratings to junk in a matter of months.

S&P is facing other regulatory pressure as well. Last month a source said the U.S. Justice Department was investigating S&P and Moody’s Investors Service actions on mortgage securities.