September 5, 2014 5:13 PM

A guide to evaluating new investment ideas by P. Brett Hammond

Last year, 157 new ETFs and ETNs were launched in the United States — one-tenth of the total of 1,546, according to ETF.com. But how many of these new funds can be called real innovations? Take the hottest area of the market: what many investors call smart beta, strategic beta or factor investing. These are index strategies that take bets against the market in an attempt to either deliver risk-adjusted outperformance or to capture some particular factor approach.

New regulation from the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) aims to help US workers manage and invest the money they contribute to their 401(k)-type pension plans. New disclosure information must be included in plan in participant Quarterly Statements by November 14, 2012. MSCI has developed a new vendor licensing model for 401(k) platforms and plan administrators who will need to distribute MSCI index data.

Top1000Funds.com interviewed Henry Fernandez, Chairman and CEO of MSCI: With hundreds of indexes, portfolio and risk analytics, and a growing emerging-markets and environmental, social and governance (ESG) focus, MSCI is a business in constant evolution, but institutional investors are demanding further development, such as private-equity indexes. Fernandez has been chief executive of MSCI since 1996, when the companys revenue was USD 9 million. Last year it had USD 900 million in revenue and employed 2500 staff in 20 countries. The firm has grown organically and through acquisition, and Fernandez says he is on the lookout for suitable companies once more. Read the full interview.

MSCI will reintroduce coverage of the Saudi Arabia equity market with the release of standalone country indices, after reaching agreement with the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) for the provision of market data.

MSCI has announced it will be providing its MSCI environmental, social, and governance research, ratings, and screening tools to asset management companies throughout Africa in order to integrate ESG factors into its investment process. ABNs Smanatha Loring speaks with Henry Fernandez, Chairman & CEO of MSCI. Watch the interview.

The National Federation of Mutual Aid Associations for Municipal Personnel, one of the largest public pension plans in Japan with over JPY 8 trillion in AUM*, has selected the MSCI Japan ESG Index as the benchmark for a passive mandate. A range of 7-17% of the total AUM is targeted for investment in domestic equities, and part of this allocation will be used for the ESG mandate. Read more

March 7, 2012 5:06 PM

With the unprecedented volatility seen in global equity markets recently, many investors are exploring risk-based strategies — not only to cushion and diversify extreme risk, but for their potential to capture the low volatility effect.

The paper Turbulent Times Ahead analyzes and compares two risk-based index strategies, minimum variance and risk-weighted, examining the MSCI Minimum Volatility and Risk Weighted Indices. Read the paper

February 29, 2012 10:34 AM

The MSCI GDP Weighted Indices are designed to reflect the size of a countrys economy, or gross domestic product (GDP), rather than the size of its equity market.

The country weights for each MSCI GDP Weighted Index are reset each year in May, and are based on the previous year’s GDP figures. Between each annual review, country weights will fluctuate with changes in the performance of their constituents.

Effective in May 2012, MSCI is enhancing its GDP Weighted Index methodology. Formerly, index additions and deletions made between annual reviews impacted the weight of their respective countries. With the enhanced methodology, index additions and deletions will no longer affect current country weights.

February 9, 2012 10:04 AM

Henry Fernandez, Chairman and CEO of MSCI, appears on CNBC to talk about the launch of MSCIs new Chinese name MSCI 明晟. Watch the interview