Moody's, previously known as Moody's Analytics, is a subsidiary of Moody's Corporation established in 2007 to focus on non-rating activities, separate from

Moody's Investors Service Moody's Ratings, previously and still legally known as Moody's Investors Service and often referred to as Moody's, is the bond credit rating business of Moody's Corporation, representing the company's traditional line of business and its histo ...

. It provides economic research regarding risk, performance and

financial modeling Financial modeling is the task of building an abstract representation (a model) of a real world financial situation. This is a mathematical model designed to represent (a simplified version of) the performance of a financial asset or portfolio o ...

, as well as consulting, training and software services. Moody's is composed of divisions such as Moody's KMV, Moody's Economy.com, Moody's Wall Street Analytics, the Institute of Risk Standards and Qualifications, and Canadian Securities Institute Global Education Inc.

History

In 1995, Moody's Corporation started a business unit providing quantitative analysis services, including

credit risk Credit risk is the chance that a borrower does not repay a loan In finance, a loan is the tender of money by one party to another with an agreement to pay it back. The recipient, or borrower, incurs a debt and is usually required to pay ...

assessment software and services after acquiring Financial Proformas, Inc., called Moody's Risk Management Service (MRMS). In early 2000 Moody's acquired the Software Products Group of Crowe, Chizek & Co., then the eighth-largest accounting and consulting firm in the U.S., which brought software used by banks to analyze the risk in taking on commercial loans. The same year, MRMS partnered with

RiskMetrics The RiskMetrics variance model (also known as exponential smoother) was first established in 1989, when Sir Dennis Weatherstone, the new chairman of J.P. Morgan, asked for a daily report measuring and explaining the risks of his firm. Nearly ...

to develop software that combined credit risk analysis with portfolio management. In February 2002, Moody's purchased KMV (Kealhofer, McQuown and Vasicek), a

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

-based quantitative

risk management Risk management is the identification, evaluation, and prioritization of risks, followed by the minimization, monitoring, and control of the impact or probability of those risks occurring. Risks can come from various sources (i.e, Threat (sec ...

firm, and merged it with MRMS to create Moody's KMV. The company acquired KMV's clients and its software tool for calculating the probability of credit default, here returning the EDF, or "Expected Default Frequency"; see KMV model. Moody's KMV integrated financial modeling software from each former company and, in 2003, debuted its credit risk management system, Credit Monitor. In 2005, Moody's acquired Economy.com, an economics research and analytics firm based in

West Chester, Pennsylvania West Chester is a borough (Pennsylvania), borough and the county seat of Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. Located in the Delaware Valley, Philadelphia metropolitan area, the borough had a population of 18,671 at the 2020 census. West ...

, adding services related to economic and demographic research, country analysis, and data on industrial, financial and regional markets. The following year, in December 2006 the firm acquired Wall Street Analytics, a San Francisco-based financial analysis and monitoring software developer founded by Ron Unz, which then became Moody's Wall Street Analytics. The acquisition brought with it software for financial risk management, including CDOnet, a tool for

collateralized debt obligation A collateralized debt obligation (CDO) is a type of structured finance, structured asset-backed security (ABS). Originally developed as instruments for the corporate debt markets, after 2002 CDOs became vehicles for refinancing Mortgage-backed se ...

(CDO) valuation. In August 2007, Moody's Corporation created a new division for its combined non-ratings businesses, Moody's Analytics, to operate separately from

. Subsidiary companies that make up Moody's Analytics today include Moody's KMV, Economy.com, Wall Street Analytics, Fermat International, Enb Consulting Ltd., and, most recently, CSI Global Education Inc. The division began operations with Moody's KMV, Economy.com and Wall Street Analytics, and other subsidiary companies were added to Moody's Analytics through later acquisitions. In 2008, Moody's Analytics acquired Fermat International, a

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

-based provider of software for financial risk and performance management in the banking sector, used by over 100 banks across 30 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. In December 2008, Moody's Analytics added Enb Consulting Ltd., a provider of professional training and career services in the financial sector based in

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, to Moody's Analytics Training Services. Its services include technical and

soft skills Soft skills, also known as power skills, common skills, essential skills, or core skills, are psychosocial skills generally applicable to all professions. These include critical thinking, problem solving, public speaking, professional writing, t ...

training programs for banking and capital markets professionals. Moody's Analytics further added to its training services in November 2010, when it acquired Canadian Securities Institute Global Education Inc. (CSI), a provider of training and certification for the financial sector, best known for its introductory course to stocks and bonds, the Canadian Securities Course, which is mandatory for Canadian licensed investment advisers. In June 2010, Moody's Analytics formed a strategic alliance with

Experian Experian plc is a multinational corporation, multinational data broker and consumer credit reporting company headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. Experian collects and aggregates information on more than 1 billion people and businesses including ...

to provide software for financial institutions to manage consumer loan portfolios. The first product provided by the companies was Moody's CreditCycle Plus, a tool to forecast potential losses and provide

stress testing Stress testing is a form of deliberately intense or thorough testing, used to determine the stability of a given system, critical infrastructure or entity. It involves testing beyond normal operational capacity, often to a breaking point, in orde ...

of loan portfolios. In March 2011 Moody's Analytics announced the release of a software program developed by Moody's Research Labs, the Mortgage Portfolio Analyzer, to assist portfolio managers in managing credit risk. In November 2011, Moody's Corporation acquired a major stake in Copal Partners, providers of outsourced research and analytical services to institutional customers. This acquisition extends the research, data, software and training services offered by Moody's Analytics. In December 2011, Moody's Corporation added Barrie & Hibbert Limited, a provider of risk management modeling tools for insurance companies, to Moody's Analytics enterprise risk management services in a deal worth £50,000,000. In December 2013, Moody's acquired Amba Investment Services, a provider of investment research and quantitative analytics for global financial institutions. In October 2014, Moody's acquired Lewtan, a provider to members of the global asset-securitization industry. In December 2016, Copal Amba, formerly a Moody's Analytics subsidiary, was merged with Moody's Analytics to form Moody's Analytics' Knowledge Services unit. Mark Almeida has been president of Moody's Analytics since January 2008 until October 2019. In October 2017, SBI collaborated with Moody's Analytics to train staffs. Moody's Analytics acquired Bureau van Dijk in 2017. In November 2017, the Department of Justice charged three Chinese employees of Guangzhou Bo Yu Information Technology Company Limited with hacking into corporate entities in the United States, including Moody's Analytics. Moody's Analytics acquired Cortera in 2021. Moody's Analytics acquired kompany in 2021. On 6 March 2024, Moody's Analytics was renamed to just "Moody's".

Products and services

Moody's products include Market Implied Ratings (MIR) and Expected Default Frequency (EDF) software packages. MIR applies Moody's ratings scale to credit and equity market price signals so users can identify investment opportunities; EDF estimates a company's credit default probability based on quantitative factors including

market capitalization Market capitalization, sometimes referred to as market cap, is the total value of a publicly traded company's outstanding common shares owned by stockholders. Market capitalization is equal to the market price per common share multiplied by ...

, equity, volatility and

capital structure In corporate finance, capital structure refers to the mix of various forms of external funds, known as capital, used to finance a business. It consists of shareholders' equity, debt (borrowed funds), and preferred stock, and is detailed in the ...

. The division also provides financial institutions with analytical and

software, including its RiskAnalyst credit risk management software, which is used to provide analysis of credit data for commercial loans and to calculate risk.

References

{{Authority control American companies established in 2007 Financial software companies Macroeconomics consulting firms Risk analysis Multinational companies Financial services companies based in New York City Financial technology companies Research and analysis firms of the United States Financial services companies established in 2007 2007 establishments in New York City