Moody’s Corporation has acquired a majority stake in Four Twenty Seven, Inc., a firm that provides data and analysis on physical climate risks.
The acquisition of the Berkeley, California-based company enhances Moody’s ability to incorporate climate risk into its economic modelling and credit ratings, a release said.
Four Twenty Seven scores physical risks resulting from sea level rise, hurricanes and typhoons, and heat and water stress. The firm quantifies climate risk exposure across asset classes, the release said, with data on more than 2,000 listed companies, 320 REITs, 3,000 U.S. counties and 196 countries.
“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,” said Myriam Durand, global head of assessments at Moody’s Investors Service, in a statement.
The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Other financial institutions have been increasing their capacity to measure risks associated with climate change. The London Stock Exchange Group, which owns indexing firm FTSE Russell, acquired ESG data firm Beyond Ratings in June and launched a climate-risk adjusted global bond index earlier this month.
In its May financial system review, the Bank of Canada included climate change as an important vulnerability for the first time.