CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This prospectus contains “forward-looking statements,” as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements, which express management’s current views concerning future events, trends, contingencies or results, appear at various places in this report and use words like “anticipate,” “assume,” “believe,” “continue,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “future,” “intend,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “strategy,” “target” and similar terms, and future or conditional tense verbs like “could,” “may,” “might,” “should,” “will” and “would.” For example, management may use forward-looking statements when addressing topics such as: the outcome of contingencies; future actions by regulators; changes in the Company’s business strategies and methods of generating revenue; the development and performance of the Company’s services and products; the expected impact of acquisitions and dispositions; the Company’s effective tax rates; and the Company’s cost structure, dividend policy, cash flows or liquidity.
Forward-looking statements are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in forward-looking statements include, among other things:
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worldwide economic, financial, political, and regulatory conditions (including slower GDP growth or recession, restrictions on trade (e.g., tariffs), instability in the banking sector and inflation), and factors that contribute to uncertainty and volatility (e.g., supply chain risk), geopolitical uncertainty (including military conflict), natural and man-made disasters, civil unrest, public health crises (e.g., pandemics), and conditions that result from legislative, regulatory, trade and policy changes, including from the U.S. administration;
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the volatility and health of debt, equity, commodities and energy markets, including credit quality and spreads, the composition and mix of credit maturity profiles, the level of liquidity and future debt issuances, equity flows from active to passive, fluctuations in average asset prices in global equities, demand for investment products that track indices and assessments and trading volumes of certain exchange traded derivatives;
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the demand and market for credit ratings in and across the sectors and geographies where the Company operates;
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the Company’s ability to maintain adequate physical, technical and administrative safeguards to protect the security of confidential information and data, or protect against a system or network disruption that results in regulatory penalties and remedial costs or improper disclosure of confidential information or data;
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the outcome of litigation, government and regulatory proceedings, investigations and inquiries;
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concerns in the marketplace affecting the Company’s credibility or otherwise affecting market perceptions of the integrity or utility of independent credit ratings, benchmarks, indices and other services;
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the level of merger and acquisition activity in the United States and abroad;
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the level of the Company’s future cash flows and capital investments;
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the effect of competitive products (including those incorporating artificial intelligence (“AI”)) and pricing, including the level of success of new product developments and global expansion;
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the impact of customer cost-cutting pressures;
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a decline in the demand for our products and services by our customers and other market participants;
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our ability to develop new products or technologies, to integrate our products with new technologies (e.g., AI), or to compete with new products or technologies offered by new or existing competitors;
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the introduction of competing products (including those developed by AI) or technologies by other companies;
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our ability to protect our intellectual property from unauthorized use and infringement, including by others using AI technologies, and to operate our business without violating third-party intellectual property rights, including through our own use of AI in our products and services;