The two leading rating agencies in the world are among the 500 largest companies in the USA.
Anyone who thinks the rating agencies industry is a marginal issue should study the Fortune 500 list. Moody’s Corporation has been named to the Fortune 500 for the first time, reflecting the strength and momentum of its strategy as a global integrated risk assessment firm and the resilience of its global employee base.
The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The name of the Fortune 500 ranking is synonymous with business success. Now there is the 67th edition of the ranking of America’s largest companies. Together, the 500 corporations on this year’s list generated $13.8 trillion in revenue, or some two-thirds of the U.S. economy.
When Gabler Verlag published the first book in German on the subject of “Credit Rating by International Agencies” exactly 30 years ago, hardly anyone would have thought that a relatively small organization of analysts would make it into this prestigious ranking. The book by Gabler Verlag was based on the publication of the first doctoral thesis in German on this topic. A central theme of this book was the controversial forecast that the two leading rating agencies Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s would gain in importance worldwide. What was a controversial prognosis at the time is a provable fact today.
“Moody’s achieved record revenue growth in 2020, in part because we never wavered in our support for each other and because we stayed focused on providing expertise to our customers when they needed it most,” said Rob Fauber, President & CEO of Moody’s. “Our inclusion in the Fortune 500 recognizes the contribution of our employees in achieving these results – even during challenging times – and I am deeply grateful for their dedication.”
Moody’s generated $5.4 billion in revenue in 2020, due in large part to strong market demand for Moody’s data, analytics, and trusted insights during the COVID-19 pandemic. Recognition in the Fortune 500 reflects the clarity of Moody’s strategic direction and its growth during a period of unprecedented market turbulence.
Building on the heritage of the rating agency, Moody’s Investors Service, in 2007 Moody’s launched Moody’s Analytics to further build the firm’s data and analytical capabilities, serving a broader range of customers to help them make better decisions about a wider range of risks.
While Moody’s made it onto this list of success for the first time, competitor S&P Global is already on a higher rank. Dealing in financial information and analytics, S&P Global is the parent company of subsidiaries such as S&P Global Ratings and S&P Global Market Intelligence. The company also owns a majority stake in the S&P Dow Jones Indices. Therefore, these two companies on the Fortune 500 list are not fully comparable. Moody’s rank is 500, S&P Global’s rank is 393.
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