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Index regulation
Various regulatory bodies and other organizations have turned their attention to the provision and use of benchmarks. MSCI has been actively monitoring these developments and engaging in dialogue with the relevant parties.
MSCI has been committed to high standards in benchmark administration long before the EU benchmark regulation, as evidenced through our adoption of the IOSCO Principles for Financial Benchmarks (described below) and our long history as a respected benchmark provider. We fully support the aims of the EU benchmark regulation and have been an active contributor to its development from the outset.
Below you can find updates about our applications for authorization to become a regulated benchmark administrator in the EU.
Equity indexes: MSCI Limited (located and registered at Ten Bishops Square, 9th Floor, London E1 6EG, UK) is the administrator for all our MSCI equity indexes. In October 2017, MSCI Limited intends to submit its application to the UK FCA (during the FCA’s pre-application period) to be authorized as an EU administrator for all of our MSCI equity indexes.*
Real estate indexes: Investment Property Databank Limited (located and registered at Ten Bishops Square, 9th Floor, London E1 6EG, UK) is the administrator for all of our IPD real estate indexes (including PAS benchmarks), and as an EU administrator, intends to use the transitional period afforded to EU administrators under the EU benchmark regulation. We will provide further updates on this website in due course.**
Should you have any questions, please contact MSCI Client Service.
To search our index methodologies, please see our Index Methodology page.
* Please note that the EU benchmark regulation affords the national competent authority a statutory review period of up to 4 months for authorization applications for non-regulated entities. For the period from January 1, 2018 until we are authorized, we intend to use the transitional period afforded to EU administrators under Article 51(1) of the EU benchmark regulation, which permits the use of our existing and new indexes in the EU (as clarified by ESMA’s guidance from July 5, 2017) for up to two years.
** For the period from January 1, 2018 until we are authorized, we intend to use the transitional period afforded to EU administrators under Article 51(1) of the EU benchmark regulation, which permits the use of our existing and new indexes in the EU (as clarified by ESMA’s guidance from July 5, 2017) for up to two years.
Index constituents information as per ESMA Guidelines can be found here.
MSCI has a long history of defining and adopting best practice with respect to its index policies and procedures, and we support the aims of the IOSCO Principles for Financial Benchmarks.
The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) is an association of organisations that regulate the world’s securities and futures markets. In order to promote transparency, IOSCO published some principles for financial benchmarks in July 2013, calling upon benchmark administrators to disclose their compliance within 12 months of that date.
MSCI has engaged PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP to undertake an independent reasonable assurance review of MSCI's implementation of the IOSCO Principles for Financial Benchmarks. Reasonable assurance is a higher level of assurance than limited assurance, and copies of the assurance reports can be viewed below:
Assurance Report - MSCI Equity Indexes
Assurance Report - MSCI's IPD Indexes and Benchmarks
As we are currently focused on the implementation of the EU Benchmark Regulation, we intend to continue relying on our compliance statements and assurance reports from 2016.
Data submitters to IPD indexes
We ask data submitters to adhere to our Data Submitter Code of Conduct so that the data submission processes for assets included in the IPD indexes and benchmarks are in line with the IOSCO Principles and best practices.
For further information and if you provide data to us, please read the documents below:
ASIC Consultation on Implementing the Financial Benchmark Regulatory Regime – Issued on July 17, 2017
>> MSCI Response
MSCI Equity Index Policy regarding United States Irs 871(M) regulations relating to the definition of a “Qualified Index”
While we strive to provide superior products and services, if you have a formal index complaint regarding our index products, please follow the procedure as outlined below. Formal index complaints include complaints regarding whether a specific index is representative of market it seeks to measure, complaints regarding a proposed change to the index determination process, complaints regarding an application of the methodology in relation to a specific index determination, and complaints regarding other decisions in relation to the index determination process.
Formal index complaints relating to our equity indexes must be emailed to EquityIndexComplaints@msci.com.
Formal index complaints relating to our real estate indexes must be emailed to RealEstateIndexComplaints@msci.com.
MSCI’s formal index complaints policy can be found here. For the avoidance of doubt, this process covers formal index complaints only. For general questions about our equity indexes, please contact MSCI Client Service. For general questions about our real estate indexes, please contact the IPD Client Services team via realestate@msci.com.
Oversight Committees for MSCI equity indexes
The Risk and Regulatory Committee (“RRC”), the Equity Index Committee (“EIC”), the Index Policy Committee (“IPC”) are the three main committees MSCI uses.
MSCI REAL ESTATE INDEX OVERSIGHT COMMITTEES
The Risk and Regulatory Committee (“RRC”), the Real Estate Index Committee (“REIC”), the Index Policy Committee (“IPC”) are the three main committees that provide additional oversight and governance for the production of real estate indexes.