NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI), a leading provider of research-based indexes and analytics and the world’s largest provider of environmental, social and governance (ESG) indexes2, announced today the launch of new MSCI ESG Universal Indexes and the renaming of two MSCI ESG Index families. The MSCI ESG Universal Indexes are designed to enable pension funds, endowments and other asset owners to better focus on ESG issues in their investment decision-making processes.
The MSCI ESG Universal Indexes may be suitable for asset owners and other large Institutional investors who classify themselves as universal owners and seek to enhance their exposure to ESG while maintaining a broad and diversified universe of equities to invest in. To target high ESG performers, the MSCI ESG Universal Index moves away from a free float market cap weighting and tilts toward companies that demonstrate both a robust ESG profile and a positive ESG trend.3
With a focus on weighting companies rather than excluding them, the index aims to maintain a broad and diversified universe of equities. To minimize exclusions, the MSCI ESG Universal Indexes limit them to companies found to be in violation of international norms (for example, facing severe controversies related to human rights, labor rights or the environment) and those involved in controversial weapons (for example, landmines, cluster munitions, depleted uranium, and biological and chemical weapons).
“The MSCI ESG Universal Indexes offer the world’s largest asset owners a scalable way to integrate ESG into their investment decision-making processes,” said Diana Tidd, MSCI’s Global Head of Index. “Asset owners can use the MSCI ESG Universal Indexes to facilitate asset allocation or to help implement investment strategies in accordance with their ESG goals.”
With over 700 ESG Indexes, MSCI continues to be a leader in ESG indexing and research. In 2016, more than $56 billion in assets were benchmarked to MSCI ESG Indexes globally. MSCI is the number one index provider to equity ESG ETFs globally.
The MSCI ESG Universal Index family comprises five indexes:
- MSCI ACWI ESG Universal Index
- MSCI World ESG Universal Index
- MSCI Europe ESG Universal Index
- MSCI EM (Emerging Markets) ESG Universal Index
- MSCI USA ESG Universal Index
MSCI’s ESG Indexes
MSCI’s ESG Indexes offer institutional investors a suite of equity indexes designed to support varied approaches to ESG investing. In addition to the launch of the MSCI ESG Universal Indexes, the existing MSCI ACWI ESG and MSCI ACWI SRI Indexes will be renamed this June as described in the table below. The newly named indexes will continue to provide institutional investors with transparency into ESG sustainability and values alignment, as well as the ability to compare holdings.
| Current Index Family Name | Current Index Name | Renamed Index and Family Name | ||||
| MSCI Global Sustainability | MSCI ACWI ESG | MSCI ACWI ESG Leaders | ||||
| MSCI Global Socially Responsible | MSCI ACWI Socially Responsible | MSCI ACWI SRI | ||||
To learn more about MSCI's ESG Index family, visit www.msci.com/esg-index-family
About MSCI
For more than 40 years, MSCI’s research-based indexes and analytics have helped the world’s leading investors build and manage better portfolios. Clients rely on our offerings for deeper insights into the drivers of performance and risk in their portfolios, broad asset class coverage and innovative research.
Our line of products and services includes indexes, analytical models, data, real estate benchmarks and ESG research.
MSCI serves 97 of the top 100 largest money managers, according to the most recent P&I ranking.
For more information, visit us at www.msci.com.
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| 1 | As of December 2016, based on Bloomberg, Morningstar and MSCI data. Active AUM includes data as of Sept. 30, 2016, reported on Dec. 31, 2016 by eVestment. | |
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By number of indexes and by assets tracking the indexes compared with publicly available information produced by FTSE and S&P Dow Jones. |
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For more information on MSCI ESG Ratings visit https://www.msci.com/esg-ratings |
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