Moody's Corp. took a majority stake in climate risk analysis firm Four Twenty Seven, the firms said Wednesday.
Four Twenty Seven helps investors and companies integrate climate change risk into their investment decisions. It is now an affiliate of Moody's Investors Service, which is boosting its portfolio of risk assessment capabilities and working to advance global standards for environmental and climate risk factors assessment and incorporating climate risk into economic modeling and credit ratings.
Myriam Durand, global head of assessments at Moody's Investors Service, said in a statement that "Four Twenty Seven has built a strong platform for quantifying climate-related exposures and producing actionable risk metrics, which are essential to understanding and informing climate risk and resilience measures."
Four Twenty Seven scores physical risks associated with climate-related factors and other environmental issues, including heat stress, water stress, extreme precipitation, hurricane and typhoons, and sea level rises.
Its scores and portfolio analytics quantify climate risk exposures across asset classes, with detailed data covering more than 2,000 listed companies, 1 million global corporate facilities, 320 real estate investment trusts, 3,000 U.S. counties and 196 countries.
Moody's also announced Thursday that it acquired RiskFirst, a financial technology company providing risk analytic solutions to money managers and pension funds, and recently acquired Vigeo Eiris, a provider of ESG research, data and assessments.
Moody's Analytics President Mark Almeida said RiskFirst is known for specialized expertise in the buy-side and asset owner ecosystem, and it offers Moody's "significant opportunities for growth," including RiskFirst's PFaroe platform serving U.S. and U.K. defined benefit plans.
