Moody\'s - Citizendia

Moody's Corporation

Type	Public (NYSE: MCO)
Founded	New York City (1909)
Headquarters	New York City
Revenue	▲ US$2. A public company usually refers to a company that is permitted to offer its registered securities ( Stock, bonds, etc The New York Stock Exchange ( NYSE) is a Stock exchange based in New York City. The City of New York Year 1909 ( MCMIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting The City of New York In business revenue or revenues is Income that a company receives from its normal business activities usually from the sale of goods and services The United States dollar ( sign: $; code: USD) is the unit of Currency of the United States; it has also been 04 Billion (2006)
Operating income	▲ US$1. In financial and business Accounting, earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT is a measure of a firm's profitability that excludes interest and income tax expenses The United States dollar ( sign: $; code: USD) is the unit of Currency of the United States; it has also been 26 Billion (2006)
Net income	▲ US$754 Million (2006)
Website	www.moodys.com

Moody's Corporation (NYSE: MCO) is the holding company for Moody's Investors Service which performs financial research and analysis on commercial and government entities. Net income is equal to the Income that a firm has after subtracting costs and Expenses from the total Revenue. The United States dollar ( sign: $; code: USD) is the unit of Currency of the United States; it has also been A website (alternatively web site or Web site, a back-construction from the Proper noun World Wide Web) is a collection of Web pages The New York Stock Exchange ( NYSE) is a Stock exchange based in New York City. The company also ranks the credit-worthiness of borrowers using a standardized ratings scale. The company has a 40% share in the world credit rating market.

Moody's was founded in 1909 by John Moody. Year 1909 ( MCMIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting John Moody (1868 - 1958 was a US Financial analyst and investor Top Institutional owners of Moody's include Berkshire Hathaway and Davis Selected Advisers. Berkshire Hathaway ( for supervoting shares and for nonvoting shares is a conglomerate Holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska Davis Selected Advisers is an independent investment firm based in Boston MA.

1 Moody's ratings
2 Criticism
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

Moody's ratings

Long-term obligation ratings

Moody's long-term obligation ratings are opinions of the relative credit risk of fixed-income obligations with an original maturity of one year or more. They address the possibility that a financial obligation will not be honored as promised. Such ratings reflect both the likelihood of default and the probability of a financial loss suffered in the event of default.

Investment grade

Aaa

Obligations rated Aaa are judged to be of the highest quality, with minimal credit risk.

Aa1, Aa2, Aa3

Obligations rated Aa are judged to be of high quality and are subject to very low credit risk.

A1, A2, A3

Obligations rated A are considered upper-medium grade and are subject to low credit risk.

Baa1, Baa2, Baa3

Obligations rated Baa are subject to moderate credit risk. They are considered medium-grade and as such may possess certain speculative characteristics.

Speculative grade (Also known as 'Junk')

Ba1, Ba2, Ba3

Obligations rated Ba are judged to have speculative elements and are subject to substantial credit risk.

B1, B2, B3

Obligations rated B are considered speculative and are subject to high credit risk.

Caa1, Caa2, Caa3

Obligations rated Caa are judged to be of poor standing and are subject to very high credit risk.

Obligations rated Ca are highly speculative and are likely in, or very near, default, with some prospect of recovery of principal and interest.

Obligations rated C are the lowest rated class of bonds and are typically in default, with little prospect for recovery of principal or interest.

Special

Withdrawn Rating

Not Rated

Provisional

Short-term taxable ratings

Moody's short-term ratings for taxable securities are opinions of the ability of issuers to honor short-term financial obligations. Ratings may be assigned to issuers, short-term programs or to individual short-term debt instruments. Such obligations generally have an original maturity not exceeding thirteen months, unless explicitly noted.

Moody's employs the following designations to indicate the relative repayment ability of rated issuers:

P-1: Issuers (or supporting institutions) rated Prime-1 have a superior ability to repay short-term debt obligations.

P-2: Issuers (or supporting institutions) rated Prime-2 have a strong ability to repay short-term debt obligations.

P-3: Issuers (or supporting institutions) rated Prime-3 have an acceptable ability to repay short-term obligations.

NP: Issuers (or supporting institutions) rated Not Prime do not fall within any of the Prime rating categories.

Note: Canadian issuers rated P-1 or P-2 have their short-term ratings enhanced by the senior-most long-term rating of the issuer, its guarantor or support-provider.

Short-term tax-exempt ratings

Unlike S&P, Moody's has separate categories for short term municipal bonds. In the United States, a municipal bond (or muni) is a bond issued by a city or other local government or their agencies The ratings categories largely overlap, though, and have the same implications for the ability to repay short-term obligations.

Criticism

See also: Credit rating agency#Criticism

Credit rating agencies such as Moody's have been subject to criticism in the wake of large losses in the Asset backed security collateralized debt obligation (ABS CDO) market that occurred despite being assigned top ratings by the CRAs. A credit rating agency ( CRA) is a company that assigns Credit ratings for Issuers of certain types of Debt obligations as well as the debt instruments A credit rating agency ( CRA) is a company that assigns Credit ratings for Issuers of certain types of Debt obligations as well as the debt instruments For other subjects with the same abbreviation see CDO. Collateralized debt obligations (CDOs are an unregulated type of Asset-backed security For instance, losses on $340. 7 million worth of ABS collateralized debt obligations (CDO) issued by Credit Suisse Group added up to about $125 million, despite being rated Aaa by Moody's. ^[1]

References

^ Tomlinson, Richard & Evans, David (2007-06-01), “CDOs mask huge subprime losses, abetted by credit rating agencies”, International Herald Tribune, <http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/31/bloomberg/bxinvest.php>

External links

Standard & Poor's ( S&P) is a division of McGraw-Hill that publishes financial research and analysison Stocks and bonds. Fitch Ratings Ltd is an international Credit rating agency dual-headquartered in New York City and London. A M Best Company Inc, headquartered in Oldwick New Jersey, is Rating agency designated as an Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organization DBRS is a credit rating agency headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. A Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organization (or "NRSRO" is a Credit rating agency which issues credit ratings that the U This article is primarily about Reuters prior to its 2008 merger with Thomson Bloomberg LP is a financial software services news and data company Morningstar Inc ( is an investment research company based in Chicago, Illinois, USA.

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