The federal probe of the ratings agency, a unit of Moody's Corp (>> Moody's Corporation), comes as the Justice Department nears a settlement with Standard & Poor's Ratings Services, a unit of McGraw Hill Financial Inc (>> McGraw Hill Financial Inc), over similar conduct, the Journal reported.

Justice Department officials could not be immediately reached for comment by Reuters on Sunday.

Moody's executives and Justice Department officials have been meeting to discuss ratings of complex securities prior to the 2008 financial crisis, the Journal reported.

The investigation is in a early stage and it is still unclear whether it will lead to a lawsuit, the Journal reported.

The probe comes as the Justice Department nears a $1.37 billion settlement with Standard & Poor's for similar alleged conduct, the newspaper reported. The Justice Department sued Standard & Poor's in 2013 for what it said were misleading ratings of residential mortgages leading up to the 2008 financial crisis.

(Reporting by Suzanne Barlyn and Peter Cooney; Editing by Eric Walsh)

Stocks treated in this article : McGraw Hill Financial Inc, Moody's Corporation