Moody's
Headquarters:
7 World Trade Center, 250 Greenwich St.
New York, NY 10007
Employees: 3,600
CEO: Raymond McDaniel
Website: http://www.moodys.com
Stock Symbol:
MCO
Career Page
Moody's Investors Service is among the
world's leading sources for credit ratings, research and risk
analysis. In addition to the core ratings business, Moody's provides
research data and analytic tools for assessing credit risk, and
publishes market-leading credit opinions, deal research and commentary,
serving more than 9,300 customer accounts at some 2,400 institutions
around the globe.
Moody's independence and integrity have earned us the trust of
capital market participants worldwide.
Moody's ratings and analysis track debt
covering more than:
- 100 sovereign nations
- 12,000 corporate issuers
- 29,000 public finance issuers
- 96,000 structured finance obligations
Credit ratings and research help investors
analyze the credit risks associated with fixed-income securities.
These independent credit ratings and research also contribute
to efficiencies in fixed-income markets and other obligations,
such as insurance policies and derivative transactions, by providing
credible and independent assessments of credit risk.
Moody's maintains offices in most of the
world's major financial centers and employs 3,600 people in 27
countries, including more than 1,000 analysts. The firm also
has expanded into developing markets through joint ventures or
affiliation agreements with local rating agencies.
Moody's Corporation is the parent company
of Moody's Investors Service, which provides credit ratings and
research covering debt instruments and securities and Moody's
Analytics, encompassing the growing array of Moody's non-ratings
businesses including Moody's KMV, a provider of quantitative
credit analysis tools, Moody's Economy.com, which provides economic
research and data services, and Moody's Wall Street Analytics,
a provider of software for structured finance analytics.
Customers include a wide range of corporate
and governmental issuers of securities as well as institutional
investors, depositors, creditors, investment banks, commercial
banks, and other financial intermediaries.
Moody's reported revenue of $2.25 billion
in 2007, an 11% increase, and net income of $701.5 million.
History
John Moody (1868 - 1958) was a self-taught
reformer who had a strong entrepreneurial drive and a firm belief
about the needs of the investment community -- as well as considerable
journalistic talent. Relying on his assessment of the market's
needs, John Moody & Company published Moody's Manual of Industrial
and Miscellaneous Securities in 1900, the company's founding
year. The manual provided information and statistics on stocks
and bonds of financial institutions, government agencies, manufacturing,
mining, utilities, and food companies. Within two months the
publication had sold out. By 1903, circulation had exploded,
and Moody's Manual was known from coast to coast.
When the stock market crashed in 1907,
Moody's company did not have adequate capital to survive, and
he was forced to sell his manual business.
John Moody returned to the financial market
in 1909 with a new idea: instead of simply collecting information
on the property, capitalization, and management of companies,
he now offered investors an analysis of security values. His
company would publish a book that analyzed the railroads and
their outstanding securities. It offered concise conclusions
about their relative investment quality. He expressed his conclusions
using letter rating symbols adopted from the mercantile and credit
rating system that had been used by the credit-reporting firms
since the late 1800s. Moody had now entered the business of analyzing
the stocks and bonds of America's railroads, and with this endeavor,
he became the first to rate public market securities.
In 1909, Moody's Analyses of Railroad Investments
described for readers the analytic principles that Moody used
to assess a railroad's operations, management, and finance. The
new manual quickly found a place in investors' hands. In 1913,
he expanded his base of analyzed companies, launching his evaluation
of industrial companies and utilities. By that time, the "Moody's
ratings" had become a factor in the bond market. On July
1, 1914, Moody's Investors Service was incorporated. That same
year, Moody began expanding rating coverage to bonds issued by
US cities and other municipalities. By 1924, Moody's ratings
covered nearly 100 percent of the US bond market.
Moody's continued to publish and monitor
ratings during the Great Depression, when bond default rates
skyrocketed but few bonds highly-rated by Moody's missed payments.
In the 1970s, Moody's ratings were further extended to the commercial
paper market and to bank deposits. Also in the 1970s, the major
rating agencies including Moody's began the practice of charging
issuers as well as investors for rating services. The rationale
for this change was, and is, that issuers should pay for the
substantial value objective ratings provide in terms of market
access. In addition, it was recognized that the increasing scope
and complexity of the capital markets demanded staffing at higher
levels of compensation than could be received from publication
subscriptions alone.
Benefits
Moody's offers a competitive compensation
package, comprehensive benefits, and an environment where integrity,
analytical excellence and professionalism are recognized and
rewarded.
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