Moodys — Business Overview
What does Moody's do?
Moody's is a global risk intelligence firm built around two distinct but complementary businesses: credit ratings and analytics. The company employs roughly 16,000 people across more than 40 countries and organizes its work into two reportable segments:
| Segment | Full Name | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| MIS | Moody's Investors Service | Issues credit ratings, research, and risk analysis on debt instruments, corporations, governments, and structured finance securities worldwide |
| MA | Moody's Analytics | Sells data, research, and software tools that help financial institutions, corporations, and governments assess and manage risk |
Within MA, there are three main product lines: Research & Insights (fixed income and economic research), Data & Information (powered by one of the world's largest commercial databases), and Decision Solutions (cloud-based software for banking, insurance, and Know Your Customer compliance workflows).
How does Moody's make money?
MIS earns most of its revenue from fees paid by the organizations that issue debt and want a Moody's credit rating. When a company, government, or bank wants to borrow money in public markets by issuing bonds, they typically pay a rating agency to assess their creditworthiness. This "issuer-pays" model means MIS revenue rises and falls with the volume of debt issued globally. The filing notes that rating fees from debt issuers account for the majority of MIS revenue, though recurring fees from monitoring existing ratings, commercial paper programs, and bank deposit ratings provide a partial buffer against issuance slowdowns.
MA earns revenue primarily through subscriptions, which are more predictable and recurring than MIS's transaction-based fees. Customers pay annual or multi-year subscription fees for access to data feeds, research platforms, and cloud-based software tools. MA's strategy focuses on landing new customers and then expanding those relationships over time through cross-selling and upselling additional products. The filing highlights strong customer retention rates as a key growth driver for this segment.
What market does Moody's operate in?
MIS operates in the global credit rating market, which is closely tied to the health of debt capital markets worldwide. Demand for ratings is driven by factors like interest rates, corporate mergers and acquisitions, refinancing cycles, and economic growth (since GDP growth tends to stimulate borrowing). The filing notes that long-term secular trends — including growth of private credit markets, expansion of debt markets in developing economies, and bank system constraints pushing borrowers toward public capital markets — are favorable for MIS.
MA competes in the broader financial information, data, and enterprise risk software markets. This market is being reshaped by two forces: rising regulatory complexity (which forces financial institutions to invest in compliance and risk tools) and the adoption of artificial intelligence, which is changing how risk analysis is performed. Moody's views both trends as tailwinds, since more complex regulations increase demand for its compliance software and AI creates opportunities to embed its proprietary data deeper into customer workflows.
Who are Moody's main competitors?
MIS competes primarily with other major credit rating agencies, most notably S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings. The global credit rating industry is highly consolidated — a small number of large, well-recognized agencies dominate, and their ratings carry significant regulatory weight (for example, many institutional investors are required by rule to hold only investment-grade rated securities). MIS also competes with investment banks and brokerage firms that publish their own credit opinions and research, as well as in-house credit research teams at large financial institutions.
MA faces a more fragmented competitive landscape across its product lines. In Decision Solutions software, competitors are providers of enterprise risk and compliance software. In Research and Insights, competitors include economic data providers and financial research firms. In Data and Information, rivals are commercial data providers. Moody's claims its key competitive advantages are the depth and proprietary nature of its curated data, its long track record and brand credibility (especially in credit), and its ability to integrate data and analytics across multiple risk domains — credit, climate, ESG, cybersecurity — in a single platform.
Where does Moody's operate?
Moody's is a genuinely global company, with more than 11,000 of its roughly 16,000 employees located outside the United States. The company operates in more than 40 countries, with significant presences in Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America. MIS in particular has been expanding in emerging markets, including recent growth in Latin America through its Moody's Local domestic ratings business, including the acquisition of ICR Chile.
Regulatory exposure varies significantly by region and adds operational complexity. In the U.S., MIS is registered with the SEC as a Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organization (NRSRO) — a formal designation that grants its ratings regulatory standing. In the European Union, MIS subsidiaries are registered with and supervised by ESMA (the EU's securities markets regulator) and must comply with additional rules including DORA (digital operational resilience requirements). In the U.K., MIS is regulated by the FCA. New EU and U.K. regulations targeting ESG ratings are coming into force in 2026, and the EU AI Act adds further regulatory uncertainty. The company flags these evolving rules as potential cost and compliance risks, though it does not quantify the financial impact.