Research Paper

Climate risk in private real estate portfolios: What’s the exposure?

As a long-term asset class, private real estate is especially vulnerable to climate-related events, such as water stress, hurricanes and flooding. The impact for investors could range from increased operational costs (e.g., damage to the property, repair costs) to the potential for higher insurance costs, property devaluation and in some extreme cases, the complete loss of the property. We analyzed physical risks in five real estate markets in different regions (Australia, South Africa, the...

Oct 17, 2019

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MSCI Event

MSCI ESG Climate Seminar Series: TCFD Reporting and Scenario Analysis for Institutional Investors

Oct 3, 2019

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Press Release

MSCI Completes Acquisition of Carbon Delta

Oct 2, 2019

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MSCI Event

Global ESG and Climate Risk: Where are the hot spots?

Sep 16, 2019

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MSCI Event

Leveraging Alternative Data and AI in ESG Research

Sep 11, 2019

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Research Paper

Banking on ESG: Examining the financial relevance of ESG to banks

Recent studies by MSCI ESG Research have shown an historical link between environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors and stronger corporate financial performance. However, investors may question whether the relationship between ESG and stronger financial characteristics also applied to banks. For spread businesses such as banks, profitability, returns and valuation are typically driven by balance-sheet strength, rather than by the transmission channels such as operational efficiency...

Sep 3, 2019

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Research Paper

TCFD-based reporting: A practical guide for institutional investors

This guide aims to support institutional investors who intend to follow the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures’ recommendations for reporting on their climate-related risk management processes. Climate-related risks pose a potential threat to the long-term resilience of portfolios, and there is a growing regulatory focus on investors’ climate risk management practices and disclosures. Approaches for developing a climate change strategy depend on the investor’s objectives,...

Aug 8, 2019

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Research Paper

Clearing the Smoke Around Cannabis

Exposure to companies with ties to the cannabis industry raises challenges for investors. Some have sought to keep their portfolios cannabis-free while others have focused on long-term risks and opportunities. How can investors approach this challenge?

Jul 22, 2019

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Research Paper

Climate change and climate risk: An index perspective

A transition to a low-carbon economy could reduce demand for carbon-intensive products and services in favor of low-/zero-carbon counterparts. This migration in demand could also alter the risk-return profile — not only of individual companies but of some entire industries. The MSCI Climate Change Index aims to reflect these potential changes, increasing the index weight of companies identified as exposed to a low-carbon transition, while decreasing the weight in companies negatively exposed...

Jul 10, 2019

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Research Paper

Factor allocation to asset allocation

Asset-allocation approaches have evolved from the traditional 60/40 split to the recent adoption of risk, rather than capital, budgeting across asset classes. However, asset-class buckets are not always clear-cut risk and return drivers. We present a factor-based asset-allocation framework to help investors who have begun to look through asset classes to factors — the underlying drivers of risk and returns.

Jun 26, 2019

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