MSCI Inc. (MSCI) Business

Item 1.    Business

Overview

Our research-based data, analytics and indexes, supported by advanced technology, set standards for global investors and help our clients understand risks and opportunities, make better investment decisions and unlock innovation.

Investors all over the world use our tools and solutions to gain insights and improve transparency throughout their investment processes. Our offerings help them define their investment universe; make asset allocation decisions; construct and analyze portfolios and investment strategies; identify, measure and manage drivers of investment risk and performance; integrate sustainability and climate considerations into portfolio construction and risk management; design and manage indexed financial products such as exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”); and prepare regulatory and client reports.

Our products and services include indexes; portfolio construction and risk management analytical models and tools; sustainability and climate solutions; and private asset data and analytics. We are focused on supporting investors’ total portfolio needs across asset classes through our integrated solutions. We use advanced technology, including artificial intelligence (“AI”), to improve how we collect and validate data and enhance the capabilities and insights we deliver to clients.

Our client-centric focus and deep understanding of client needs, challenges and goals help us anticipate and respond to industry trends. We consider the distinct needs of different client types when developing our tools and solutions. We operate an integrated business across all functions, products and solutions, and we are dedicated to delivering service excellence, innovative research and content, and flexible, cutting-edge technology.

Clients

We serve many client types across the global investment ecosystem and align our tools and solutions to support their data, analytical, research and workflow needs. Our client types include:

•Asset managers, including managers of institutional funds and accounts, mutual funds, ETFs, and other public-market strategies, as well as private-markets general partners

•Banks and brokerages, including banks, broker-dealers, custodians, proprietary market makers and fund administrators

•Asset owners, including pension funds, endowments, foundations, investment consultants, central banks, sovereign wealth funds and single family offices

•Hedge fund managers, including of equity hedge funds, fixed income hedge funds, multi-strategy hedge funds and multi-manager hedge funds

•Wealth managers, including wealth management divisions of broker-dealers, RIAs, private banks, multi-family offices, digital wealth and brokerage platforms

•Insurance companies, including reinsurers

•Others, including exchanges; vendors; real estate professionals, such as brokers, agents and developers; academic institutions; and corporates, including public and private companies, and their advisors

As of December 31, 2025, we served approximately 6,800 clients1 in more than 100 countries. For the year ended December 31, 2025, our largest client organization by revenue, BlackRock, accounted for 10.8% of our consolidated operating revenues, with 96.5% of the operating revenues from BlackRock coming from fees based on the assets in BlackRock’s ETFs and non-ETF products that are based on our indexes.

Industry Trends and Competitive Advantages

We believe we are strongly positioned to benefit from emerging trends and to help our clients adapt to changes in the investment industry. Investing has grown in complexity, with more choices across asset classes, security types and geographies, a wider array of risks and opportunities, and increased demand for customized portfolios that are tailored to client-specific objectives

1 Reflects the aggregation of all related client entities under their respective parent client entity. At acquisition, we align an acquired company’s client count to our methodology.

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and constraints. In addition, portfolio design and management are becoming increasingly outcome-oriented, rules-based and technology-driven. As a result, the investment process is transforming, which is reflected in several key trends:

•Changing client strategies and operating models, influenced by fee compression, changing demographics, economic outlooks and the regulatory environment;

•Use of global, multi-asset-class and other complex strategies, including integration of public and private assets and factor exposure objectives into investment strategies;

•Need for high-quality data, insightful models and timely research, particularly during times of volatility and uncertainty;

•Growth of indexed investing, including through ETFs (including active and fixed income ETFs) and indexed derivatives (including futures, options, structured products and over-the-counter swaps);

•Demand for data and tools that support customized portfolio construction and specialized preferences and objectives, including custom indexes;

•Integration of sustainability and climate risk and performance considerations into investment processes, reporting and product creation;

•Allocation of capital to private assets and demand for greater transparency and standardization of the drivers of private asset risk and performance;

•Disclosure requirements that necessitate high-quality data and streamlined reporting solutions;

•Use of advanced technologies, including AI, to enhance products, improve analytics, collect and evaluate data, derive insights, improve client experiences, streamline operations and gain competitive advantages.

We believe the following competitive advantages position us well to meet client demands in light of these trends:

•Differentiated research-enhanced content provides our clients with insights to better navigate a complex, fast-changing investment landscape. We are continually developing a wide range of differentiated content and have amassed an extensive database of global market data; proprietary index data; sustainability and climate data and metrics; factor models; private asset performance, transaction and benchmark data, including fund- and asset-level data; and risk algorithms, all of which can be critical to our clients’ investment processes.

•Client-centricity allows us to build strong client relationships globally and better understand and serve client needs. Our client coverage team maintains trusted relationships with senior executives and investment professionals. We regularly consult with clients and other market participants to discuss their needs, investment trends and implications for our research, product development and client servicing goals.

•Proprietary content, delivered at scale through flexible technology and AI. Our proprietary data and research underpin our solutions. We use advanced technology, including AI, to strengthen data quality, expand coverage and accelerate how we deliver insights generated from our proprietary content. Our commitment to open and flexible technology allows us to process data more efficiently and deliver platform flexibility, integrating into our clients’ workflows through APIs, data feeds and cloud delivery. We also partner with global technology companies to accelerate the development of our AI capabilities to enhance our solutions, insights and the client experience.

Strategy

We provide critical tools and solutions that enable investors to navigate the complexities of the investment process, better understand drivers of performance and risk, and build portfolios more effectively and efficiently to achieve their unique investment objectives. We are focused on the following key initiatives:

•Extend leadership in research-enhanced content across asset classes. We develop innovative solutions that incorporate proprietary and differentiated content. In addition to enhancing our position as a leading provider of tools and solutions for equity investors globally, we are focused on continuing to grow and enhance our content for other asset classes and strategies, including private assets, sustainability and climate, thematics, factors, fixed income and liquidity. We believe these areas represent significant long-term growth opportunities and are necessary to deliver total portfolio solutions that enable an integrated view of risk and return across asset classes, strategies, and public and private markets.

•Grow strategic client relationships and expand presence across new client types. We aim to be a strategic partner to our clients by anticipating their needs, offering differentiated solutions and insights, and delivering a seamless client experience. While maintaining our strong position with asset managers, we are also focused on expanding our presence with hedge funds, wealth managers, banks and broker-dealers, asset owners, insurance companies, corporates and proprietary market makers, each representing distinct growth opportunities with specialized needs we believe we are uniquely positioned to address.

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•Apply AI to accelerate product innovation. We are applying AI across our organization to enhance and accelerate content creation, data processing and analytics, and development of differentiated products and solutions.

•Expand solutions that empower client customization. We are expanding solutions that enable clients to tailor their unique risk and return preferences, sustainability goals and investment strategies across asset classes, geographies and themes, to meet their diverse and evolving needs. These solutions include custom index capabilities that allow clients to translate investment views, constraints or regulatory requirements into benchmarks and other index-linked products.

•Lead the enablement of sustainability and climate investment integration by delivering data, insights and applications that help clients identify, assess and manage financially material sustainability and climate risks and opportunities. Through our integrated business model and operations, we also utilize our sustainability and climate data and research in our index, analytics and private asset offerings.

•Enhance distribution and content-enabling technology. We are developing advanced technology to drive efficiency, accelerate innovation and enhance client experience. We are prioritizing open, scalable distribution that allows clients to access and integrate MSCI content and analytical tools into their own platforms and workflows, including through APIs, data vendors and third-party distribution partners, as well as cloud-based tools.

•Execute strategic partnerships and acquisitions with complementary data, content and technology companies. We regularly evaluate and selectively pursue strategic partnerships with, and acquisitions of, providers of unique and differentiated data, content, products and technologies that we believe can enhance or expand our offerings, capabilities and client base.

Financial Model

We have an attractive financial model due to our recurring revenue and strong cash generation. Clients purchase our products and services primarily through recurring fixed and variable fee arrangements, which historically have contributed to stable revenue and greater cash flow predictability, although variable fees may fluctuate with market levels and client activity. Our disciplined capital allocation policy provides us with flexibility to balance investment in our business, acquisitions and shareholder returns through dividends and share repurchases.

See Part II, Item 7. “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Overview” and Note 1, “Introduction and Basis of Presentation—Significant Accounting Policies—Revenue Recognition,” of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements included herein for information on how we generate revenue and our revenue recognition policy.

Segments

For the year ended December 31, 2025, we had the following five operating segments: Index, Analytics, Sustainability and Climate, Real Assets and Private Capital Solutions, which are presented as the following three reportable segments: Index, Analytics, and Sustainability and Climate. For reporting purposes, the Real Assets and Private Capital Solutions operating segments are combined and presented as All Other – Private Assets, as they did not meet the required thresholds for separate reportable segment disclosure. In the first quarter of 2025 we retitled our “ESG and Climate” operating and reportable segment as “Sustainability and Climate” to reflect the breadth of our product offerings. The change did not affect the composition of our operating or reportable segments or our historical segment results.

Index

Clients use our indexes to support many areas of the investment process, including for developing indexed financial products (e.g., ETFs, mutual funds, annuities, futures, options, structured products, over-the-counter derivatives), performance benchmarking, portfolio construction and rebalancing, asset allocation, and creating custom indexes. Our index families span multiple asset classes, geographies and investment strategies. Clients can access our index data directly from MSCI or through third-party vendors worldwide.

Our index product offerings include:

•MSCI Market Cap Indexes. MSCI Market Cap Indexes are designed to measure the performance of global equity markets. As of December 31, 2025, we calculated indexes that covered more than 80 developed, emerging, frontier and standalone equity markets, as well as various global, regional, sector and industry indexes built from these market indexes.

•Factor Indexes. Factor Indexes seek to reflect the performance characteristics of a range of investment styles and strategies, such as momentum or value. These indexes include stocks that demonstrate high exposure to the target

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factor. In addition to single factor indexes, we offer multiple-factor indexes for investors with diversified multi-factor strategies.

•Fixed Income Indexes. Fixed Income Indexes include both investment grade and high-yield securities across a number of currencies that reflect the performance of credit markets generally, or specific investment strategies, including climate-focused or factor strategies.

•Private Asset Indexes. MSCI Private Asset Indexes enable investors to assess the performance of unlisted assets across private equity, credit, real estate, infrastructure and natural resources and facilitate a holistic view across public and private markets. Certain of our Private Asset Index products are reported under All Other – Private Assets.

•Sustainability Indexes. Sustainability Indexes seek to support the needs of sustainable investing strategies by applying specific screening and eligibility criteria relevant to the target investment goals.

•Climate Indexes. Climate Indexes are designed to support climate focused investment strategies and can help investors seeking to align with global climate goals as defined by the Paris Agreement.

•Thematic Indexes. Thematic Indexes are designed to measure the performance of companies associated with certain macroeconomic, geopolitical, technological or other trends. These indexes can target areas of interest under megatrend categories such as the environment, healthcare and lifestyle. Examples of our Thematic Indexes include indexes covering the digital economy, efficient energy, genomic innovation and smart cities.

•Custom Indexes. Custom Indexes are calculated by applying additional criteria specified by the client – such as stock exclusion lists, currency hedging rules, tax rates or special weighting – to an underlying MSCI index. Investors use custom indexes to create tailored benchmarks, support direct indexing, design structured products and custom baskets, and implement active ETF strategies, and can update designs over time as objectives evolve.

Our Index segment also includes revenues from licenses of GICS Direct, the global industry classification standard jointly developed and maintained by MSCI and S&P Dow Jones Indices, a division of S&P Global Inc. GICS is widely accepted as an industry analysis framework for investment research, portfolio management and asset allocation. GICS Direct is a dataset comprised of companies and securities classified by sector, industry group, industry and sub-industry in accordance with the proprietary GICS methodology. The MSCI Sector Indexes are comprised of GICS sector, industry group, and industry indexes across countries and regions in Developed, Emerging and select Frontier markets.

For the year ended December 31, 2025, 57.0% of our revenues were attributable to our Index segment. A majority of those revenues were attributable to annual, recurring subscriptions. A portion of our revenues comes from clients who use our indexes as the basis for indexed investment products. Such fees are primarily based on a client’s assets under management (“AUM”) or trading volumes and are referred to herein as asset-based fees. Since market movement and investment trends impact our asset-based fees, our revenues from asset-based fees are subject to volatility. For the year ended December 31, 2025, asset-based fees accounted for 43.1% of the total revenues for our Index segment.

Analytics

Our Analytics segment offers risk management, performance attribution and portfolio management content, applications and services that provide clients with an integrated view of risk and return and tools for analyzing market, credit, liquidity, counterparty and climate risk across all major asset classes, including public and private securities, spanning short-, medium- and long-term time horizons. Our offerings also support clients’ various regulatory reporting needs.

Our Analytics tools and capabilities include the following: models to support factor-based analytics (e.g., Barra equity models and fixed income and multi-asset class (“MAC”) models), pricing models and single security analytics, time series-based analytics, stress testing, performance attribution, portfolio optimization and liquidity risk analytics, as well as underlying inputs such as interest rate and credit curves. We continue to develop new and improved tools and capabilities in response to the evolving needs of our clients. In addition, our analytics capabilities are helping fuel growth in key areas across our business, such as our factor indexes, climate risk reporting solutions and factor risk analytics on private assets.

Our clients can access our Analytics tools and content through our proprietary applications and APIs, third-party applications or directly through their own platforms. Our Analytics solutions provide clients with tools to construct and manage portfolios, including integrated market data from multiple third parties as well as content from MSCI’s other segments, which significantly

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reduces the operational burden on clients to independently source this information and populate it in our Analytics products. Our key Analytics products include:

•RiskMetrics RiskManager. RiskMetrics RiskManager provides risk analytics across a broad range of publicly traded instruments and private assets. Clients use RiskManager for daily analysis, including: Value-at-Risk (“VaR”) simulation; measuring and monitoring market and liquidity risk at position, fund and firm levels; sensitivity analysis and stress testing; interactive what-if analysis; counterparty credit exposure; and regulatory risk reporting.

•BarraOne. Powered by our MAC Barra factor model, BarraOne provides clients with MAC risk and performance analytics and helps clients manage exposures across public and private asset classes. BarraOne allows clients to build equity, fixed income, and MAC portfolios, integrated with MSCI’s indexes, sustainability and climate data.

•Barra PortfolioManager. Barra PortfolioManager is an integrated risk, performance and portfolio-construction interactive platform with a flexible user interface that enables our clients to design investment strategies and build portfolios, and to share analytics and reports across their organizations. It is used by equity fund managers and their teams to gain additional portfolio insight and manage their investment processes more systematically.

•RiskMetrics WealthBench and RiskMetrics CreditManager. RiskMetrics WealthBench is a web-based platform used by private banks, financial advisers, brokerages and trust companies to help wealth managers assess portfolio risk, construct asset allocation policies and create comprehensive client proposals. RiskMetrics CreditManager is a portfolio credit risk management system used primarily by banks to quantify portfolio credit risk by capturing market exposure, rating changes and default risk.

•AI Portfolio Insights. Our AI Portfolio Insights offering calculates, stores, and delivers a broad range of risk, performance, climate, and sustainability measures to help investors identify trends and respond to market changes. The tool features a generative AI-powered chatbot to deliver risk insights and is designed to enhance speed, efficiency and collaboration.

•MSCI Wealth Manager. MSCI Wealth Manager, formerly known as Fabric, offers a technology platform for wealth managers for portfolio design, customization and analytics.

Our Analytics segment also provides various managed services to help clients operate more efficiently, including consolidation of client portfolio data from various sources, review and reconciliation of input data and results, and customized reporting, including sustainability and climate reporting. In addition, our RiskMetrics HedgePlatform service allows clients such as funds of funds, pension funds and endowments who invest in hedge funds to measure, evaluate and monitor the risk of their hedge fund investments across multiple hedge fund strategies.

For the year ended December 31, 2025, 22.8% of our revenues were attributable to our Analytics segment.

Sustainability and Climate

The Sustainability and Climate segment offers products and services that help institutional investors understand how sustainability considerations can impact the long-term risk and return of their portfolios and individual security-level investments. Investors commonly use our Sustainability and Climate solutions in their investment processes to help assess financial risks and opportunities, inform their asset allocation and portfolio construction decisions, and support regulatory and client reporting.

Our Sustainability and Climate research team analyzes over 9,0002 entities worldwide, and we will continue to expand and deepen our coverage, including to address a broader set of emerging risks and opportunities. Our clients include asset managers, asset owners, wealth managers, banks, insurers, consultants, advisers, regulators, central banks and corporates.

Our Sustainability and Climate offerings include:

•MSCI ESG Ratings. Our ESG ratings aim to measure a company’s resilience to long-term ESG risks. Companies are scored on an industry-relative scale across the most relevant key ESG issues based on a company’s business model. MSCI ESG Ratings include ratings of equity issuers and fixed income securities. In assigning an MSCI ESG Rating, we collect the most relevant, publicly available data and assess the most significant ESG risks a company faces. Investors use MSCI ESG Ratings for a variety of purposes, including to assist with fundamental or quantitative analysis, portfolio construction and risk management, engagement and thought leadership, benchmarking and custom index design.

•MSCI Business Involvement Screening Research. MSCI Business Involvement Screening Research is a screening service that enables institutional investors to manage sustainability and climate standards and restrictions reliably

2 Does not include subsidiary-level companies.

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and efficiently. Asset managers, investment advisers and asset owners can access screening research through the online MSCI ONE platform or a data feed to support alignment with their investment guidelines, implement client mandates or manage potential portfolio risks.

•MSCI Climate Solutions. Investors and issuers utilize our climate data and tools to support their investment decision making. These activities can include measuring and reporting on climate risk exposure, implementing low-carbon or fossil-fuel-free strategies, factoring climate change research into risk management processes and engaging companies and external stakeholders.

•GeoSpatial Asset Intelligence. Our Geospatial Asset Intelligence tool helps clients, including investors and lenders, explore location-specific exposures and quantify financial impact, including for physical and nature-related risks. It provides drill-down insights into individual real asset locations, to support risk management, due diligence, regulatory compliance and engagement.

•MSCI Sustainability and Climate Regulatory Solutions. MSCI Sustainability and Climate Regulatory Solutions help investors and other capital-markets participants stay informed of sustainability and climate regulatory requirements and simplify reporting, with tools to support mandatory and voluntary disclosures.

Sustainability and climate data provided to our clients are also made available to, and used in, our other operating segments, such as in the construction of our MSCI Sustainability and Climate equity and fixed income indexes. These Index products are designed to help institutional investors more effectively benchmark sustainability and climate investment performance, issue indexed investment products, as well as manage, measure and report on sustainability and climate mandates.

For the year ended December 31, 2025, 11.3% of our revenues were attributable to our Sustainability and Climate segment.

All Other – Private Assets

Our private assets offerings provide data and analytics to evaluate fundamental information, measure and compare performance, understand exposures and manage risk across private equity, private credit, real estate, infrastructure and other private markets. These offerings also support comparisons of performance and risk across public and private assets and enhance our multi-asset class and total portfolio capabilities.

Our products and services include datasets on companies, funds and transactions; standardized classifications and methodologies; benchmarks and portfolio analytics for performance measurement, attribution, scenario analysis and risk; and tools that support reporting by limited partners and general partners. We also integrate our private assets data and analytics in other MSCI products offered by our other operating segments, including indexes, climate risk models, MAC models and other MSCI solutions.

Our Real Assets offerings include:

•Real Capital Analytics. RCA aggregates timely transaction data and provides valuable information on market pricing, capital flows and investment trends in more than 170 countries. Our clients use this unique data to formulate strategies, source new opportunities and execute deals.

•Portfolio Performance Insights. Our Portfolio Performance Insights application offers an interactive, integrated solution to analyze the drivers of performance across investments, as well as review income analytics, exposures and concentrations across markets, asset types and portfolios.

•Index Intel. Our Index Intel offering is an extensive private real estate database that is used by institutional investors, asset managers, banks, custodians and investment consultants to drive allocation decisions, research and strategy developments, and portfolio and risk management.

•Portfolio Climate Insights. Our Portfolio Climate Insights solution provides forward-looking and return-based valuation assessments to measure climate-related risks for real estate assets in an investment portfolio.

•Property Intel. Our Property Intel offering provides web-based services for the analysis of commercial real estate in the Nordics and offers extensive information on rental levels, property holdings, transactions, ownership, occupiers, footfall, lease data and the ability to simulate market values.

Our Private Capital Solutions offerings include:

•Private Capital Portfolio Management. Private Capital Portfolio Management provides analytical tools and reporting to help investment, risk and operations teams monitor and measure private capital portfolios. The offering enables users to analyze portfolio exposures, manage investment activity and support reporting across private asset classes.

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•Total Plan Manager. The Total Plan Manager provides integrated portfolio management and analytics designed to support oversight of investment portfolios across public and private assets. The platform offers a comprehensive view of the drivers of performance and risk across asset classes.

•Private Capital Transparency. Private Capital Transparency provides investment teams with information on underlying fund holdings and exposures of private capital funds. The offering delivers detailed information that is sourced from original documents provided by managers and augmented with extensive research.

•Private Capital Intel. Private Capital Intel provides extensive private capital data with coverage of historical profiles, sourced directly from limited partners and supports benchmarking, market analysis and performance evaluation.

•Investment Book of Record. Investment Book of Record supports the validation, reconciliation and management of private capital data. The offering enables tracking, forecasting and reporting on capital calls, distributions and valuations.

For the year ended December 31, 2025, 8.9% of our revenues were attributable to our private assets offerings.

Research and Development

We apply an integrated team approach to developing content across our operating segments. Our research and development, product management, data operations and technology teams are at the center of this process. Our content is developed by a research and development team comprised of mathematicians, economists, statisticians, financial engineers, investment professionals and industry experts. Content created in one segment can often be used for the creation of products in another segment. For example, we use elements of our private assets data and research across our offerings, including in certain multi-asset class models created in our Analytics segment that support multi-asset class risk analysis. We also use this content in our index offerings, including private asset benchmarks and benchmarks that combine public and private market exposures. In addition, our MSCI Sustainability and Climate indexes and our climate reporting analytics product are constructed using data from our Sustainability and Climate operating segment.

Through our relationships with the world’s largest investment institutions, we monitor investment trends and their drivers globally. Our research covers instrument valuation, risk modeling, portfolio construction, portfolio attribution, asset allocation and sustainability and climate-related investment risks, including transition risks and physical risks. Direct public consultations, client advisory panels and an Advisory Council, comprising senior investment professionals from around the world and senior members of our research and development team, are important examples of ways in which we monitor global investment trends and their implications for our clients and business.

Technology

Technology plays a pivotal role in our operations and our ability to innovate and launch products and services. Current areas of focus include:

•Improving the client experience by enhancing the way clients access, interact with and use our data, applications and other tools. We continue to develop and expand delivery channels, including APIs, data feeds, cloud delivery and self-service abilities. These capabilities are designed to help clients integrate MSCI content into their own platforms and workflows, and to reduce client operational burden.

•Advancing data processing, content quality and product development through data science, machine learning and AI. These capabilities and technologies enable more efficient data collection, enhance content and support quality-control processes. They also allow us to more effectively scale operations and enhance our product development processes. We have developed AI-enabled solutions including AI Portfolio Insights, which features a generative AI-powered interface to help deliver risk and portfolio insights, and GeoSpatial Asset Intelligence, which incorporates AI-driven data processing to help clients analyze location-specific exposures. We designed our AI governance framework, which includes review and approval processes for AI uses, to provide oversight designed to support responsible use, data protection and risk management.

•Modernizing how we build and operate software. We are enhancing our software development and operations practices to deliver new capabilities faster, reduce service interruptions and increase quality. These efforts include enhancing automation, testing, operational monitoring and secure development practices.

•Operating on cloud platforms, including our cloud-native platforms such as MSCI ONE, and leveraging major cloud providers to reduce data center risks, scale compute and storage, and improve clients’ ability to access and use MSCI content in their investment workflows.

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•Enhancing information security and resilience of our technology infrastructure and software security processes, including controls for access management, encryption, monitoring and incident response.

Competition

Index. Many industry participants compete with us by offering one or more indexes in similar categories. Such indexes vary widely in scope, including by geographic region, business sector and weighting methodology, and may be used by clients in a variety of ways in many different markets around the world. Among our Index competitors are S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC (a joint venture of S&P Global Inc. and CME Group Inc.); FTSE Russell, a subsidiary of the London Stock Exchange Group plc; Nasdaq Inc; Bloomberg Finance L.P. (“Bloomberg”); and Solactive AG.

Competition also exists from industry participants, including asset managers and investment banks, that create their own indexes, often in cooperation with index providers who provide some form of calculation agent service. Some asset managers also manage funds, including ETFs, based on their proprietary indexes, and some investment banks launch structured products or create over-the-counter derivatives based on their proprietary indexes. This is often referred to as self-indexing.

Analytics. Our Analytics offerings compete with those from a range of competitors, including Axioma (part of SimCorp), BlackRock Solutions, Bloomberg, and FactSet Research Systems Inc. Additionally, some of the larger broker-dealers have developed proprietary analytics tools for their clients. Similarly, some of the large global investment organizations, such as custodians, have developed internal risk management and performance analytics tools that they offer to their clients.

Sustainability and Climate. Our Sustainability and Climate offerings compete with a range of companies that issue sustainability and climate data, ratings or research, including Sustainalytics Holding B.V. (a part of Morningstar, Inc.), Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (majority owned by Deutsche Börse AG), S&P Global Inc., Refinitiv (a London Stock Exchange Group business) and Bloomberg.

All Other – Private Assets. We have a variety of competitors for our offerings that provide data, market intelligence, indexes, and performance and risk attribution services relating to private assets. Our private assets data and analytics products also compete with a variety of products and tools that provide transaction-, fund- and asset-level data for private assets and across asset classes.

Intellectual Property, Other Proprietary Rights and Sources of Data

We consider many aspects of our offerings, processes and services to be proprietary. We have registered “MSCI” and other marks as trademarks or service marks in the United States and in certain other countries. We will continue to evaluate the registration of additional trademarks and service marks as appropriate. We have also at times filed patent applications to seek to protect our proprietary rights. Additionally, many of our offerings, processes and services require the use of intellectual property that we license for use from third parties. It may be necessary in the future to seek or renew licenses relating to various aspects of our offerings and services. Our ownership and protection of intellectual property and other proprietary rights and our ability to obtain the rights to use third-party intellectual property are important to our business and contribute in part to our overall success.

In addition to our intellectual property, we rely on third-party data to create and deliver our products and services. For example, we require certain stock exchange data to construct equity indexes. Termination of or disputes regarding our rights to receive or use such data could limit the information available for us to use or distribute in connection with our products and services.

Human Capital Management

MSCI is committed to creating a performance culture and meritocracy with a high degree of employee engagement. Our talent and leadership development programs are designed to identify and develop the people and skills necessary to deliver on MSCI’s strategy.

The Compensation, Talent and Culture Committee (the “Compensation Committee”) of our Board has oversight over talent management matters, including efforts relating to succession planning, career progression, retention strategies, learning and leadership development. In addition, the Compensation Committee oversees efforts relating to our corporate culture, such as our employee engagement and inclusion strategies, and management reports regularly to the Compensation Committee on such matters. We also regularly engage with our shareholders on our human capital management strategies.

The Board regularly reviews our executive talent, including our current leadership bench and succession/progression planning efforts relating to our entire executive team. Senior management regularly reviews talent plans and identifies top talent with the most immediate or near-term potential to progress to the senior-most roles at MSCI.

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MSCI is a global company with employees in more than 27 countries. As of December 31, 2025, we employed 6,268 people, of which 51% of MSCI employees were located in the Asia Pacific region, 24% in Europe, Middle East and Africa, 16% in the U.S. and Canada, and 9% in Mexico and Brazil. For the one-year period ended December 31, 2025, voluntary turnover was 7% and involuntary turnover was 5%.

Inclusion and Belonging

Fostering inclusivity is a core value of MSCI. We strive to empower our people to maximize their potential in an inclusive environment. Our performance culture and meritocracy are supported by the belief that all of our people will perform their best when they feel included and valued.

Our most recent EEO-1 consolidated reports and SASB-aligned disclosures, which provide information about our workforce, including workforce composition, can be found on our website at https://www.msci.com/who-we-are/corporate-responsibility/sustainability-reports-policies. Information contained on our website is not deemed part of or incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K or any other report filed with the SEC.

Compensation, Benefits and Hybrid Work

We offer a broad range of competitive compensation and benefits programs to employees. These programs include health and welfare benefits for families, including domestic partners; caregiver leave; contributions to defined contribution and defined benefit pensions plans globally and health savings accounts in the U.S.; life insurance; and a global wellness initiative.

Our goal is to provide competitive compensation in the markets where we compete for talent and to link pay to performance. All employees are eligible for annual cash bonuses based on performance and, for managing directors, how effectively they demonstrate leadership behaviors consistent with our values and culture.

Senior employees and select other employees are eligible to participate in the MSCI Long-Term Incentive Program (“LTIP”) with awards of MSCI common stock that vest over a multi-year period. The LTIP is designed to align the interests of eligible employees with those of shareholders, reinforce an “owner-operator” philosophy and retain key talent.

Since January 2022, we have operated a hybrid work model, under which most employees may at times work remotely. The program supports our talent objectives and contributes to employee engagement, recruiting and retention.

Cultivating Talent and Employee Engagement

We offer a variety of learning and development opportunities to help employees grow their skills, receive feedback and coaching, deliver on their goals, and plan their careers. Our learning platform and tools cover a wide range of topics, with options for self-paced and longer-term career development activities. In 2025, participants in our Learning@MSCI platform spent an average of approximately nine hours each on MSCI-provided classroom and self-paced learning. In 2025, we introduced an AI Upskilling Framework to provide targeted learning opportunities ranging from foundational skills to technical specialization. Participants actively engaged with AI-focused courses through our digital learning platform.

MSCI regularly conducts an employee engagement survey that measures whether our approaches to performance, growth and career development are effective. Managers receive anonymous feedback and are accountable for driving engagement.

Health and Safety

We are committed to providing a safe workplace, and the well-being of our employees is one of our highest priorities. We have relevant health and safety policies and procedures and are committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations relating to workplace safety.

Corporate Responsibility

Our corporate responsibility practices align with our business goals and demonstrate our commitment to long-term sustainability for the benefit of our clients, employees and shareholders. The Governance and Corporate Responsibility Committee of our Board of Directors (“Board”) oversees our corporate responsibility strategy and activities and receives regular updates from MSCI management.

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We report regularly on our corporate responsibility efforts. We have published reports aligned with a number of international frameworks, including the “Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP),” the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB).

Additional information on our corporate responsibility efforts can be found on our website at https://www.msci.com/who-we-are/corporate-responsibility. Information contained on our website is not deemed part of or incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K or any other report filed with the SEC.

Regulation

We are subject to existing and evolving laws and regulations in the jurisdictions where we operate, which may increase costs or legal risks, or affect our operations, products and services.

The Company is subject to reporting, disclosure and recordkeeping obligations pursuant to SEC requirements applicable to U.S. public companies.

In the United Kingdom, MSCI Limited (a subsidiary of MSCI Inc.) is authorized by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as a benchmark administrator for applicable MSCI indexes. In the European Union, MSCI Deutschland GmbH (a subsidiary of MSCI Inc.) is authorized by Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) and by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) as a benchmark administrator for applicable MSCI indexes. Information about index regulation is periodically updated on our website at https://www.msci.com/indexes/index-resources. Information contained on our website is not deemed part of or incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K or any other report filed with the SEC.

In November 2024, the European Union adopted Regulation (EU) 2024/3005 on the transparency and integrity of ESG rating activities, which will require ESG rating providers operating in the European Union to be authorized by, or registered with, ESMA beginning July 2, 2026. The regulation imposes requirements relating to organizational governance, management of conflicts of interest, transparency of rating methodologies and disclosure to rated entities and users of ratings. Certain of our Sustainability and Climate products are expected to be in scope of this regulation.

MSCI ESG Ratings and Research Private Limited (a subsidiary of MSCI Inc.) is in the process of surrendering its certificate of registration with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) as an ESG Ratings Provider, following a strategic review by the Company.

MSCI Limited is registered with Cyberspace Administration of China as a foreign institution supplying financial information services in China.

Information About Our Executive Officers

There are no family relationships between any of our executive officers and any director or other executive officer of the Company.

Henry A. Fernandez

Mr. Fernandez has served as Chairman of the Company’s Board since October 2007 and as Chief Executive Officer and a director since 1998. He served as head of the MSCI business from 1996 to 1998 and as President from 1998 to October 2017. MSCI was previously a business unit within Morgan Stanley prior to its IPO in 2007. Before leading MSCI, he was a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley, where he worked from 1983 to 1991 and from 1994 to 2007, in emerging markets business strategy, equity derivatives sales and trading, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate and mortgage finance. Mr. Fernandez also serves on boards of directors/trustees at Stanford University, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology and its affiliate, KIMC, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the Foreign Policy Association. Mr. Fernandez previously served on the boards of directors/

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trustees at Royalty Pharma plc, Georgetown University, the Trinity School, The Browning School and MexDer (Mexican Derivatives Exchange) and was the Chair of the Advisory Council at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in economics from Georgetown University, an M.B.A. from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and pursued doctoral studies in economics at Princeton University.

C.D. Baer Pettit

Mr. Pettit has served as the Company’s President since October 2017 and as a Director on the Company’s Board since January 2023. Mr. Pettit will step down as President and as a member of the Board on March 1, 2026. He previously served as Chief Operating Officer from January 2020 until November 2025 and from 2015 to 2017, Head of the Product Group from February 2015 to September 2015, Head of Index Products from 2011 to 2015, Head of Marketing from 2005 to 2012 and Head of Client Coverage from 2001 to 2012. Prior to joining MSCI, Mr. Pettit worked for Bloomberg L.P. from 1992 to 1999. Mr. Pettit holds a Master of Arts degree in history from Cambridge University and a Master of Science degree from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

Andrew C. Wiechmann

Mr. Wiechmann has served as the Company’s Chief Financial Officer since September 2020. Mr. Wiechmann previously served as Treasurer from November 2021 to June 2022, Chief Strategy Officer from May 2019 to September 2020, Interim Chief Financial Officer from March 2019 to May 2019, Head of Strategy and Corporate Development from July 2012 to March 2019, Head of Investor Relations from December 2017 to March 2019 and Head of Financial Planning & Analysis from July 2015 to December 2017. Prior to joining MSCI in 2012, Mr. Wiechmann was an investment banker at Morgan Stanley where he executed M&A and capital markets transactions for financial technology and specialty finance companies, including advising MSCI on its IPO and various acquisitions. Mr. Wiechmann holds Bachelor of Arts degrees in Physics and Economics from Hamilton College.

Robert J. Gutowski

Mr. Gutowski has served as the Company’s General Counsel since January 2020 and the Company’s Head of Corporate Affairs since July 2024. In this capacity he oversees the firm’s legal; compliance; corporate affairs; government and regulatory affairs; corporate responsibility; and internal audit functions. Mr. Gutowski previously served as the Company’s Deputy General Counsel and the Head of Compliance from 2010 to 2019 and the Head of Internal Audit from 2012 to 2019. He joined MSCI in 2002. Prior to joining MSCI, he was an attorney in private practice at Rogers & Wells LLP and Clifford Chance LLP, focused on financial services, corporate and intellectual property matters. He received his B.A. from Georgetown University and his J.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo Law School.

Scott A. Crum

Mr. Crum has served as the Company’s Chief Human Resources Officer since April 2014. Prior to joining MSCI, Mr. Crum served as global head of human resources for four publicly traded companies. Mr. Crum worked for Avon Products, Inc. as Senior Vice President of Human Resources and Chief People Officer from 2012 to 2013. From 2010 to 2012, Mr. Crum served as Senior Vice President and Chief People Officer of Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc., one of two publicly traded companies formally created when Motorola Inc. split in January 2011 until it was acquired by Google. Prior to that, he served as the Senior Vice President and Director of Human Resources of ITT Corporation from 2002 to 2010 and Senior Vice President of Administration and Employee Resources at General Instrument Corp. from 1997 to 2000. Mr. Crum holds a Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in industrial relations from Southern Methodist University.

Alvise J. Munari

Mr. Munari has served as the Company’s Chief Product Officer since October 2025 and the Company’s Head of Client Segments since November 2025. In this capacity, he is responsible for driving our business across all products and client segments. Mr. Munari previously served as the Company’s Chief Product Officer from July 2024 to February 2025, Chief Business Officer from February 2025 to October 2025, Chief Client Officer from 2022 to 2024 and Global Head of Client Coverage from 2020 to 2022. Before joining MSCI, Alvise worked at Morgan Stanley as Global Head of Equity Derivatives Distribution and held senior positions at Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs. Mr. Munari holds a D.Phil. in Mathematics from Oxford University and an undergraduate degree in Economics and Mathematics from the London School of Economics.

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Available Information

Our corporate headquarters is located at 7 World Trade Center, 250 Greenwich Street, 49th Floor, New York, New York, 10007, and our telephone number is (212) 804-3900. We maintain a website on the internet at www.msci.com. The contents of our website are not a part of or incorporated by reference in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

We file annual, quarterly and current reports, proxy statements and other information with the SEC. The SEC maintains a website that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other information that we file electronically with the SEC at www.sec.gov. We also make available free of charge, on or through our website, these reports, proxy and information statements and other information as soon as reasonably practicable following the time they are electronically filed with or furnished to the SEC. To access these, click on the “SEC Filings” link under the “Financial Information” tab found on our investor relations homepage (https://ir.msci.com).

We also use our investor relations website ir.msci.com and our social media outlets, such as LinkedIn or X (@MSCI_Inc), as channels of distribution of Company information. The information we post through these channels may be deemed material.

Accordingly, investors should monitor these channels, in addition to following our press releases, SEC filings and public conference calls and webcasts. In addition, you may automatically receive email alerts and other information about us when you enroll your email address by visiting the “Email Alerts” on our investor relations homepage at https://ir.msci.com/email-alerts. The contents of our website, including our investor relations website, and our social media channels are not, however, a part of or incorporated by reference in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.