Four stars, two thumbs up, a must read — rave reviews like these might seem a bit suspect if they were paid for by restaurateurs, movie makers and authors being reviewed. But that is essentially how things work in the credit-rating industry, a central culprit of the financial crisis that, to its critics’ dismay, now seems to be escaping serious change.

In the overhaul of financial regulations proposed by the Obama administration on Wednesday, rating services — which, during the boom, stamped high ratings on many subprime securities — will avoid the radical changes their detractors have urged. While the administration is proposing some modest changes, none addresses what many see as the central problem: Services like Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s are paid by the companies whose securities they are evaluating. Despite calls to shake up the ratings establishment, the industry’s “issuer-pay” system is deeply entrenched.

“This is not an effort to remake the industry,” Jerome Fons, a former managing director of credit policy at Moody’s, said of the administration’s proposals. “If we believe the system is broken, this doesn’t offer a fix.” The rating services play a crucial role in the capital markets by rating everything from plain-vanilla corporate bonds to trickier “structured” investments. By law, banks must take ratings into account when investing in bonds. Big money managers often base investment guidelines on them.