In 1909, John Moody published the fifi rst publicly available bond ratings, focused entirely on railroad bonds. Moody’s fifi rm was followed by Poor’s Publishing Company in 1916, the Standard Statistics Company in 1922, and the Fitch Publishing Company in 1924. These fifi rms’ bond ratings were sold to bond investors in thick manuals. These fifi rms evolved over time. Dun & Bradstreet bought Moody’s in 1962, but then subsequently spun it off in 2000 as a free-standing corporation. Poor’s and Standard merged in 1941; Standard & Poor’s was then absorbed by McGraw- Hill in 1966. Fitch merged with IBCA (a British fifi rm, which was a.
