MSCI Announces the Results of the MSCI 2024 Global Market Accessibility Review

Rhea-AI Summary

MSCI announced the results of its 2024 Global Market Accessibility Review. The report assesses market accessibility for 85 markets, including new entrant Niger. Improvements outnumber deteriorations, particularly in Frontier Markets' infrastructure. Key criteria evaluated include openness to foreign ownership, ease of capital flows, operational efficiency, investment instrument availability, and institutional stability. These assessments help classify markets into Developed, Emerging, Frontier, and Standalone categories. Detailed results can be accessed on MSCI's website. The MSCI 2024 Annual Market Classification Review results will be released on June 20, 2024.

Positive

• Improvements in market accessibility outpace deteriorations.
• Significant infrastructure developments in Frontier Markets.
• 85 markets assessed, with new inclusion of Niger.
• Consistent and transparent evaluation criteria.
• Classification of markets aids in index construction and investment decisions.

Negative

• No specific data on the exact number of markets with deteriorating accessibility.
• Potential risks in markets not meeting international standards.
• Pending results of the Annual Market Classification Review could lead to uncertainty until June 20, 2024.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- MSCI Inc. (NYSE: MSCI), a leading provider of critical decision support tools and services for the global investment community, announced today the results of the MSCI 2024 Global Market Accessibility Review. The detailed report, covering market accessibility assessments for 85 markets now including Niger, has been made available on www.msci.com/market-classification.

Key takeaways:

• There were more improvements than deteriorations in market accessibility ratings. A significant portion of those improvements is attributed to developments in Market Infrastructure, particularly in Frontier Markets.
• MSCI continues to monitor the evolution of shorter settlement processes across global equity markets.

The MSCI Global Market Accessibility Review aims to assess and track the evolution of accessibility in individual markets, and to inform market authorities about areas that global institutional investors perceive as not meeting international standards and would welcome improvements.

Consistent with prior years, the MSCI 2024 Global Market Accessibility Review provides a detailed assessment of market accessibility for each equity market included in the MSCI Indexes and evaluates the following five market accessibility criteria:

• Openness to foreign ownership
• Ease of capital inflows / outflows
• Efficiency of the operational framework
• Availability of investment instruments
• Stability of the institutional framework

These five criteria are reflective of the areas international institutional investors generally place strong emphasis on when evaluating investment accessibility of a market, including equal treatment of investors, free flow of capital, cost of investment, unrestrictive use of stock market data, and market specific risk. MSCI uses 18 distinct accessibility measures to assess these five criteria, described in detail in the MSCI 2024 Global Market Accessibility Review report.

Market accessibility, along with economic development and size and liquidity, determine classification of markets into Developed, Emerging, Frontier and Standalone Markets. The classification of markets is a key input in the process of index construction as it determines the composition of the investment opportunity sets to be represented. The results of the MSCI 2024 Annual Market Classification Review will be announced on June 20, 2024. More information on the MSCI Market Classification Framework is available at www.msci.com/market-classification.

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About MSCI

MSCI is a leading provider of critical decision support tools and services for the global investment community. With over 50 years of expertise in research, data and technology, we power better investment decisions by enabling clients to understand and analyze key drivers of risk and return and confidently build more effective portfolios. We create industry-leading research-enhanced solutions that clients use to gain insight into and improve transparency across the investment process. To learn more, please visit www.msci.com.

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FAQ

What did MSCI announce in its 2024 Market Accessibility Review?

MSCI announced the results of the 2024 Global Market Accessibility Review, including assessments of 85 markets with improvements outnumbering deteriorations.

What new market was included in MSCI's 2024 review?

Niger was included as a new market in MSCI's 2024 Global Market Accessibility Review.

What are the main criteria evaluated in the MSCI 2024 Global Market Accessibility Review?

The main criteria are openness to foreign ownership, ease of capital flows, operational efficiency, investment instrument availability, and institutional stability.

When will the results of the MSCI 2024 Annual Market Classification Review be announced?

The results will be announced on June 20, 2024.

Where can I access the detailed MSCI 2024 Global Market Accessibility Review report?

The detailed report is available on MSCI's website at www.msci.com/market-classification.

How does market accessibility impact MSCI indexes?

Market accessibility, along with economic development, size, and liquidity, determines market classification which is a key input for MSCI index construction.