Intro - Materiality Assessment

Our purpose at MSCI is to bring greater transparency to financial markets, enabling the investment community to make better decisions. Our approach to Corporate Responsibility is to build a base of sustainable value for shareholders, grounded in MSCI’s leadership role in climate and ESG solutions.

In 2023, MSCI conducted an externally supported ESG materiality assessment to identify and prioritize ESG topics that are most significant to MSCI’s business. These topics are broadly aligned with those outlined in MSCI’s ESG Industry Materiality Map and the analysis was informed by relevant reporting standards such as the Sustainability Accounting Standard Boards (SASB) standard.

The outcome of this assessment is exhibited below, and nine topics were deemed of imperative and strategic importance from an ESG Perspective:


Table - Materiality Assessment

Priority ESG topics for MSCI*

*Colors align to broadly environmental (green), social (orange) and governance (red) categories, though we note that some topics may be relevant to more than one category, such as privacy and data security having social and governance dimensions


Methodology and Next steps

Methodology

We leveraged desk research and the feedback received during internal and external interviews and focus groups — including with management, employees, investors and clients — to prioritize a list of selected ESG topics that are of strategic importance to MSCI’s corporate responsibility approach. The results of this stakeholder engagement will inform MSCI’s corporate responsibility priorities and reporting moving forward. In addition to the nine topics identified above, MSCI will consider and monitor five additional ESG topics: biodiversity and land use; climate change and vulnerability; community relations; human rights; and supply chain labor standards.

Next steps

The insights gained from the materiality assessment will enable MSCI to further focus its corporate responsibility efforts and reporting on topics with the greatest relevance and importance to our activities and stakeholders. We will continue to engage with our stakeholders and, when new priorities emerge, plan to periodically review our assessment.


Footnotes - Materiality Assessment

1 Our ESG materiality assessment was designed to identify priority, or “material,” topics from an ESG perspective, which is a broader standard than that used in our financial disclosures. Therefore, materiality for purposes of our corporate responsibility reporting, climate reporting and ESG materiality assessment does not directly correspond to the concept of materiality used in securities law or for purposes of our financial reporting. For additional information on MSCI, our financial results and our business, please see our Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.