Moody's Corp Q4 2021 Earnings Call Summary

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Andrew Owen Nicholas - William Blair & Company L.L.C., Research Division - Analyst : I guess my first one would just be to hone in a bit more on issuance and the outlook for '22. You spoke a little bit about this in your prepared remarks, obviously. But could you spend some time just kind of talking about the biggest swing factors that could affect issuance this year and maybe how you think about the range of potential outcomes around the 2% issuance decline figure with those factors in mind?

Question: Andrew Owen Nicholas - William Blair & Company L.L.C., Research Division - Analyst : Great. That's really helpful, particularly on leveraged loans. I guess for my follow-up, I was just hoping you could provide an update on the ratings business in China, expectations for when that could be material. And I guess within that, how much growth in that business or in that market are you embedding in the low to mid-single-digit growth expectation for MIS over the next 5 years?

Question: Ashish Sabadra - RBC Capital Markets, Research Division - Analyst : So Rob, I'll just follow up to the question that you just answered, and I was wondering if you could actually provide more detail around what is baked into your issuance assumption because I would have expected issuance on a more normalized basis growing more in the low to mid-single digit, plus you have pricing power, recurring revenue growth and getting more to mid to high single digit over the next few years versus mid-single digit over the midterm. So any color on that front will be helpful on the issuance front. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. FEBRUARY 10, 2022 / 4:30PM, MCO.N - Q4 2021 Moody's Corp Earnings Call

Question: Ashish Sabadra - RBC Capital Markets, Research Division - Analyst : That's very helpful color, Rob. And Mark, maybe if I can ask a question on the multiyear investment, thanks again for that slide with the detail there. But as we think about in '22, we're going to have a total of $300 million of organic investment. How should we think about that going forward in '23 and over the midterm? Should that come down as we go from an elevated organic investment to a more normalized investment cycle? And is that the key driver for significant margin expansion on the MA side?