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landmarks
This
page highlights corporate rating industry landmarks.
It covers -
Context is provided by the broader media, business and
technology timeline.
precursors
1841 Lewis Tappan establishes commercial credit service,
the Mercantile Agency
1849 John Bradstreet establishes mercantile credit rating
agency
1849 Henry Varnum Poor becomes editor of The American
Railroad Journal
1857 Bradstreet publishes credit rating book
1859 Tappan's grandson incorporates RG Dun
1860 Poor founds Poor & Son
1868 Poor publishes annual Manual of the Railroads
of the United States, forms Poor's Publishing Company
1888 Credit Clearing House in US
1899 AM Best founded by Alfred Magilton Best
1900 AM Best launches Best's Insurance Reports
1900 John Moody publishes Moody's Manual of Industrial
& Miscellaneous Securities
1905 Best buys Insurers Reporting Company
beginnings
1907 Wall Street Panic
1909 Moody starts rating US railway bonds, publishes Analysis
of Railroad Investments
1910 Moody starts rating US industrial and utility bonds
1914 Moody's Investors Service incorporated
1913 Fitch Ratings founded as Fitch Publishing Company
by John Knowles Fitch
1916 Poor's Publishing Company begins rating stocks and
bonds
1919 Foreign Credit Interchange Bureau (FCIB), later
Finance, Credit & International Business
1922 Standard Statistics Company, Inc. established
1924 Fitch starts rating bonds
1929 Wall Street Crash
1931 US federal government required banks to mark-to-market
lower rated bonds
1933 Dun
merges with The Bradstreet Companies (a competitor founded
in 1849)
1936 US banks prohibited banks from purchasing speculative
securities
1941 Poor merges with Standard Statistics as Standard
& Poors (S&P)
1951 US government imposes higher capital requirements
on
insurers' lower rated bonds
1962 Dun & Bradstreet acquires Moody's Investors Service
1966 McGraw-Hill
buys Standard & Poors
1969 AM Best acquires United Statistical Associates, Inc.,
publisher of insurance company investment portfolios (later
Best's Market Guide)
expansion
1970 Penn Central default
1971 S&P rates claims-paying ability of US insurers
1971 S&P rates US mortgage-backed bonds
1972 Canadian Bond Rating Service (CBRS) issues first
ratings
1974 BankWatch established by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods,
issues first ratings
1974 Basel Committee established by Central Bank Governors
of the Group of Ten countries
1975 US Securities & Exchange Commission starts relying
on credit ratings issued by nationally recognized statistical
rating organizations (NRSROs) in its rule 15c3-1
1975 McCarthy, Crisanti & Maffei enters US ratings
market
1975 Mikuni & Co founded in Japan
1975 S&P rates its first Japanese issuer
1977 Dominion Bond Rating Service (DBRS) issues first
ratings
1978 IBCA issues first ratings
1979 Japan Bond Research Institute (JBRI) established,
absorbs bond rating unit of Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Inc
(Nikkei)
1982 Duff & Phelps Credit Rating Co. begins providing
formal bond ratings (having researched public utility
companies since 1932)
1983 S&P rates US mutual funds
1984 Dun & Bradstreet acquires ACNielsen audience
measurement group (spun off in 1996)
1984 Joe Mansueto founds Morningstar mutual fund info
service
1985 McCarthy, Crisanti & Maffei acquired by Xerox
1985 S&P rates US asset-backed securities
1985 Nippon Investor Service (NIS) issues first ratings
1985 Japan Credit Rating Agency (JCRA) issues first ratings
1986 S&P opens full office in Tokyo
1987 US government permits margin lending against AA domestic
and foreign bonds
Basel
1988 Basel Committee introduces Basel Capital Accord capital
measurement system
1988 Dun & Bradstreet acquires Intercontinental Medical
Statistics (IMS) (spun off as Cognizant in 1996)
1989 US government permits pension funds to invest in
high-rated asset-backed securities
1989 Keefe Bruyette Woods sells Bankwatch to Thomson
1989 US Savings & Loans prohibited from investing
in below-investment-grade bonds
1991 US government requires money market mutual funds
to limit holdings of low-rated paper
1991 Duff & Phelps acquires credit analysis and ratings
division of McCarthy, Crisanti & Maffei, becomes McCarthyPhelps
1992 remainder of McCarthy, Crisanti & Maffei absorbs
Fintrend SA, becomes MCM - online financial and energy
markets information provider
1992 French conglomerate Fimalac SA acquires London-based
IBCA
1997 AM Best establishes AM Best Europe Ltd. in London
consolidation
1997 Fitch merges with IBCA
1998 US Department of Transportation can only extend credit
assistance to projects with an investment grade rating
1998 MCM merges with Cambridge Energy Research Associates
(CERA) as Global Decisions Group
2000 Moody's spun off by Dun & Bradstreet
2000 Fitch IBCA acquires Chicago-based Duff & Phelps
Credit Rating Co.
2000 AM Best establishes AM Best Asia-Pacific in Hong
Kong
2000 Fitch IBCA acquires Thomson BankWatch from Thomson
2000 Canadian Bond Rating Service acquired by S&P
2001 Basel II Capital Accord places greater emphasis on
role of external ratings (inc by commercial agencies)
to assess sovereign credit risk
2001 Informa
buys MCM for £30.5m
2002 Dun & Bradstreet rebadges as D&B, pays US$117m
for Hoovers information service
2003 Pearson
buys S&P ComStock real-time information service for
US$115m
2003 merger of Nippon Investor Service (NIS) and JBRI
to form Rating & Investment Information, Inc (R&I)
2006 Hearst agrees to acquire 20% stake in Fitch and all
of Algorithmics for US$592m
2007 Subprime Meltdown raises questions about effectiveness
(and self-interest) of major rating services
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