NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Index Industry Association (IIA), a global organization of index administrators, today announced the results of a revealing new survey of its fourteen member firms that quantifies the total number of indexes available globally for the first time ever. According to the survey, there are 3.288 million indexes globally with equity indexes representing over 95 percent of benchmarks calculated.
The survey, which was conducted as of June 30, 2017, sought information only about the total number of indexes administered by each IIA member. It is estimated that these indexes represent approximately 98 percent of all indexes globally available.
Rick Redding, the CEO of IIA commented: “This is the first time anyone has attempted to quantify the complete index universe and the results are enlightening. Oftentimes the discussion revolves around products, but with approximately 5,300 exchange-traded funds worldwide, the results show that benchmarking is clearly the predominant use for indexes around the world. With over three million indexes available, asset managers and investors want choices when choosing a benchmark that best represents their portfolio and the underlying market.”
According to the survey, global indexes represent approximately 29 percent of the equity indexes available by geography. This is followed by APAC and EMEA, which each represent approximately 24 percent of equity indexes available, and frontier/emerging indexes (14%). The Americas have the fewest number of equity indexes, representing 9 percent of indexes globally.
However, when looking at fixed income indexes by geography, the Americas represent approximately 33 percent of total indexes available. This is followed by EMEA (29%), global (25%), APAC (14%) and frontier/emerging (0.5%).
“The geographical breakdown of equity indexes may initially come as a surprise, but when you think about the number of industries and sectors in each country across the globe, it makes sense that Europe and Asia have a larger share of the index landscape,” Redding continued. “On the flip side, fixed income results favor the Americas because issues like market structure, taxable status, and size of the securitization market have created much more demand for indexes in sovereign, composite, high yield, and securitization. What I found interesting was despite recent attention on ESG and Smart beta indexes, they only represent less than six percent of the overall market combined. There is much more interest in traditional market cap indexes and our results show that industry and sector-specific indexes are the most common.”
A complete geographical breakdown by region and asset class is available on the following page. The other most common indexes, by asset class administered by IIA members, are based on commodities, foreign exchange and healthcare costs and collectively are less than one percent of all indexes. As mentioned, this is the inaugural analysis and the results will be updated annually. The amount of assets under management benchmarked to these indexes was not in the scope of this project as independent index administrators do not have complete access to this data.
IIA was founded as the first-ever trade association for the index industry, and is continuing its expansion to serve the global investor community. Created as a not-for-profit organization for the fast-growing community of index providers, the IIA membership is open to independent index administrators worldwide.
All IIA members separately submitted this information to the IIA and the IIA has not shared it among the members other than in the aggregate form made available to the public.
For more information about the IIA or to speak with Richard Redding, please contact Intermarket Communications at IIA@intermarket.com or 212.754.5479
About Index Industry Association (IIA):
IIA is an independent, not-for-profit organization based in New York that represents the global index industry. Founded in March 2012, the association is the first ever index industry trade body and it is committed to representing the global index industry by working with market participants, regulators, and other representative bodies to promote competition and sound practices in the index industry to strengthen markets and serve the needs of investors. Our members have calculated indices since makes 1896 and today administer over three million indices for their respective clients covering a number of different asset classes, including equities, fixed income, commodities, and foreign exchange.
Many of the leading index providers in the world are members of IIA, including Bloomberg Indices, CBOE Global Markets, Chicago Booth Center for Research in Security Prices, China Central Depository and Clearing, FTSE Russell, Hang Seng Indexes, ICE Data Services, IHS Markit, Morningstar, MSCI Inc., Nasdaq Global Indexes, S&P/Dow Jones Indices, STOXX, and Tokyo Stock Exchange. Further information on IIA is available at www.indexindustry.org.
