• Published on 21 May 2020
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MSCI makes public ESG metrics for indexes and funds to drive greater ESG transparency

 MSCI announced that it has made public the MSCI ESG Fund Ratings provided by MSCI ESG Research LLC for 36,000 multi-asset class mutual funds and ETFs, and MSCI Limited has made public ESG metrics for all of its indexes covered by the European Union (EU) Benchmark Regulation (BMR). The ESG ratings and metrics are available as part of two new search tools now available to anyone on the MSCI website.

The launch is part of a wider ESG transparency initiative to provide consistent and comparable ESG metrics at the company, fund and index level. This follows the release of the MSCI ESG Ratings of over 2,800 issuers in November last year and is part of MSCI’s ongoing effort to encourage and support investors to integrate ESG considerations throughout their investment processes, as outlined in MSCI’s Principles of Sustainable Investing.

• • The MSCI ESG Fund Ratings search tool1 provides the ESG Fund Rating of a mutual fund or ETF, its peer and global rank, the ESG Rating distribution of the fund’s holdings and other ESG metrics, including green vs brown revenue, board independence and diversity and social screens such as tobacco. Clients of MSCI ESG Fund Ratings have full access to the fund’s exposure to controversies and over 200 ESG metrics.
• • The MSCI Index Profile search tool2 provides index level ESG metrics3 for all of its EU-regulated equity and blended indexes, and information on whether these indexes include ESG criteria. The MSCI Index Profile tool has been launched to comply with a new EU regulatory requirement for benchmark administrators. As part of its efforts to help standardize ESG disclosures, MSCI has disclosed index-level ESG metrics for all of its EU BMR equity and blended indexes, with fixed income indexes to follow in the coming weeks. Metrics are available for both ESG and non-ESG indexes, enabling institutional investors to better access sustainability information for their investment decisions, and to select benchmarks that best reflect their investment beliefs and policies.

“We are proud to provide investors and industry stakeholders with publicly available ESG metrics for tens of thousands of funds, companies and indexes, helping to drive awareness, educate the market and raise ESG disclosure standards,” said Remy Briand, Head of ESG at MSCI.

“We are firm believers that enhanced transparency and comparability is fundamental to ensuring broader adoption of ESG indexes, and in driving capital towards more sustainable investments.”

Re-disseminated by The Asian Banker