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MSCI has launched its ratings service to measure the environmental, social and governance focus of portfolio holdings. The ESG Fund Metrics will measure funds’ exposure to factors such as sustainable impact, values alignment and ESG risks, including carbon footprint. According to the metrics, each fund will receive an overall score from zero to ten, which indicates the ability of holdings to manage various levels of risks. It will also use a peer group percentile rank and individual ‘E’, ‘S’ and ‘G’ scores. The percentile ranking will be relative to all global funds receiving a score, as well as relative to the fund’s peer group.

MSCI has announced the expansion of the existing MSCI Islamic Index Family with the launch of the M-Series that addresses client demand for financial screening criteria based on market capitalisation. The M-Series of indices uses three financial ratios in this process: total debt-to-market cap, cash and interest-bearing securities-to-market cap, and accounts receivables and cash-to-market cap. Using market capitalisation is argued, by some, to provide a more accurate representation of these ratios. In addition to screening companies based on financial ratios, the indices avoid companies involved in activities contrary to the principles of Shariah investment.

MSCI Inc., a provider of research-based indexes and analytics, has announced the launch of the Islamic M-Series Indexes, providing an additional Islamic index screening methodology that gives local investors the option to choose between the traditional approach of using total assets or the more widely used market cap-based methodology. The MSCI Islamic Index M-Series includes: MSCI ACWI Islamic M- Series Index, MSCI Europe Islamic M- Series Index, MSCI North America Islamic M- Series Index, MSCI Pacific Islamic M- Series Index, and MSCI EM Islamic M-Series Index. In June 2015, MSCI announced broader coverage of the Middle East equity universe with the launch of the MSCI Saudi Arabia Indexes and the MSCI GCC Countries International Indexes.