Moody's publishes first bond ratings (1909)
John Moody published 'Moody's Analyses of Railroad Investments,' the first publicly available bond ratings. The system standardized how investors assessed default risk and made ratings agencies indispensable to capital markets.
Bond ratings became standard practice for US corporate debt within years.
Ratings agencies became the gatekeepers of global capital markets, with S&P and Moody's dominating for over a century.
S&P's OpenZeppelin acquisition resembles the creation of the ratings industry itself. S&P is attempting to become the trusted authority for assessing risk in a new class of financial products, this time for onchain code rather than corporate bonds.
