Standard and Poor’s

Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC

Type	Subsidiary of S&P Global, limited liability company
Industry	Financial services
Founded	1860; 157 years ago (1860) present corporation status in 1941
Founder	Henry Varnum Poor
Headquarters	New York City, New York, United States
Key people	John Berisford (Acting President)
Revenue	$2.61 billion US$ (2009)
Number of employees	10,000 (approximate)
Parent	S&P Global
Website	standardandpoors.com spratings.com

Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC (S&P) is an American financial services company. It is a division of S&P Global that publishes financial research and analysis on , bonds and commodities. S&P is known for its such as the U.S.-based S&P 500, the Canadian S&P/TSX, and the Australian S&P/ASX 200. S&P is considered one of the Big Three credit-rating agencies, which also include Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings. Its head office is located on 55 Water Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City.

The company traces its history back to 1860, with the publication by Henry Varnum Poor of History of Railroads and Canals in the United States. This book compiled comprehensive information about the financial and operational state of U.S. railroad companies. In 1868, Henry Varnum Poor established H.V. and H.W. Poor Co. with his son, Henry William Poor, and published two annually updated hardback guidebooks, Poor's Manual of the Railroads of the United States and Poor's Directory of Railway Officials.

In 1906, Luther Lee Blake founded the Standard Statistics Bureau, with the view to providing financial information on non-railroad companies. Instead of an annually published book, Standard Statistics would use 5" × 7" cards, allowing for more frequent updates.

In 1941, Poor's Publishing and Standard Statistics merged to become Standard & Poor's Corp. In 1966, the company was acquired by The McGraw-Hill Companies, extending McGraw-Hill into the field of financial information services.