Item 1. Business

Overview

We are a leading provider of critical decision support tools and solutions for the global investment community. Our mission-critical offerings help investors address the challenges of a transforming investment landscape and power better investment decisions. Leveraging our knowledge of the global investment process and our expertise in research, data and technology, we enable our clients to understand and analyze key drivers of risk and return and confidently and efficiently build more effective portfolios.

Investors all over the world use our research-driven and technology-enabled tools and solutions to gain insights and improve transparency throughout their investment processes. Our tools and solutions help investors define their investment universe; inform and analyze their asset allocation and portfolio construction decisions; measure and manage portfolio performance and risk; implement sustainable, climate-focused and other investment strategies; conduct performance attribution; construct and manage exchange traded funds (“ETFs”) and other indexed financial products; and facilitate reporting to stakeholders.

Our products and services include indexes; portfolio construction and risk management tools; environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) and climate solutions; and real estate market and transaction data and analysis. We are increasingly focused on open and flexible technology, and our content and capabilities can be accessed by our clients through multiple channels and platforms.

We aim to anticipate the needs of the investment industry with our client-centric focus and our deep understanding of our clients’ workflows, challenges and goals. We are focused on product innovation and data collection to address the evolving needs of an increasingly complex industry. In order to most effectively serve our clients, we are committed to advancing an integrated approach to our offerings, achieving service excellence, enhancing our differentiated research and content, and delivering our solutions via flexible, cutting-edge technology.

Clients

Our clients comprise a wide spectrum of the global investment industry and include the following key client types:

• Asset owners (including pension funds, endowments, foundations, central banks, sovereign wealth funds, family offices and insurance companies)

• Asset managers (including managers of institutional funds and accounts, mutual funds, hedge funds, ETFs, insurance products, private banking products and real estate investment trusts)

• Financial intermediaries (including banks, broker-dealers, exchanges, custodians, trust companies, fund administrators and investment consultants)

• Wealth managers (including robo-advisors and self-directed brokerages)

• Real Estate Professionals (including real estate brokers, agents, developers, lenders and appraisers)

• Corporates (including public and private companies and their advisors)

As of December 31, 2022 we served over 6,600 clients1 in more than 95 countries. For the year ended December 31, 2022, our largest client organization by revenue, BlackRock, accounted for 10.3% of our consolidated operating revenues, with 95.2% of the operating revenues from BlackRock coming from fees based on the assets in BlackRock’s ETFs that are based on our indexes.

Industry Trends and Competitive Advantages

We believe we are uniquely positioned to benefit from emerging trends and to help our clients adapt to a large and rapidly expanding and evolving investment industry. Investing has grown in complexity, with more choices across asset classes, security types and geographies, and more consideration of a wider array of risks and opportunities, including those related to ESG and climate. In addition, the construction and management of investment portfolios are becoming increasingly outcome-oriented, rules-based and technology-driven. As a result, the investment process is transforming, which is reflected in several trends we have observed, including:

• Changing client operating models and business strategies, driven in part by fee compression, changing demographics, the regulatory environment and shifting economic outlooks;

1 For this purpose, affiliated companies under a common parent entity are aggregated and counted as a single client.

• Increasing use of global, multi-asset-class and other complex investment strategies, including strategies incorporating private asset investments and factor objectives, as investors seek specific and unique outcomes;

• The need for high-quality data, insightful models and timely research during times of extreme volatility and high uncertainty;

• Accelerating integration of ESG and climate considerations into investment processes, reporting and products, as sustainable investing becomes more prominent and investors increasingly focus on companies with strong sustainability practices as an indicator of long-term resilience;

• Continuing growth of indexed investing through indexed investment products such as ETFs, mutual/UCITS funds and annuities, as well as indexed derivatives such as futures, options, structured products and over-the-counter swaps, and other vehicles that seek to track an index, as investors increasingly seek lower-cost investment strategies or seek to incorporate increasingly complex investment strategies across geographies, sectors, factors, trends and other considerations;

• Increasing allocation of capital to real estate and other private assets and desire for greater transparency into the performance of private assets, with an increased focus on climate and income risk;

• Increasing demand for data and tools that clients can integrate to support customized portfolio construction and highly specialized preferences and objectives; and

• Growing use of advanced technologies to enhance investment analytics, evaluate data, streamline operations, create efficiencies 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 understand and adapt to a complex and fast-changing marketplace. We are continually developing a wide range of differentiated content and have amassed an extensive database of historical global market data, proprietary equity index data, ESG and climate data, factor models, private asset benchmark data and risk algorithms, all of which can be critical components of our clients’ investment processes. This content is grounded in our deep knowledge of the global investment process and fueled by experienced research and product development and data management teams.

• Client-centricity allows us to build strong client relationships globally and better understand and service our clients’ needs in the markets in which they operate. Our client coverage team develops and maintains strong and trusted relationships with senior executives and investment professionals, and 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.

• Strong product innovation, supported by flexible, scalable, cutting-edge technology developed by our global team of sophisticated technology and data professionals, enables clients to use MSCI, third-party and their own content efficiently and cost-effectively. Our commitment to open and flexible technology allows us to more efficiently process data for distribution and deliver advanced platform flexibility for easy integration into our clients’ workflows.

Strategy

We provide critical tools and solutions that enable investors to manage the transformations taking place in the investment industry, better understand performance and risk, and build portfolios more effectively and efficiently to achieve their investment objectives. We are focused on the following key initiatives to deliver actionable and integrated client solutions:

*•*Extend leadership in research-enhanced content across asset classes. We continue to develop and deliver innovative solutions that incorporate proprietary and highly differentiated content based on rich insights from our research and product development teams. In addition to enhancing our position as a leading provider of tools and solutions for equity investors globally, our strategic priorities also include enhancing our content relating to other asset classes and strategies, including ESG and climate, thematics, factors, fixed income, liquidity and private assets, all of which we believe represent significant growth opportunities.

• Lead the enablement of ESG and climate investment integration by delivering the data, information and applications necessary to identify, assess and incorporate material ESG and climate risks and opportunities. The global adoption of ESG and climate-focused investment considerations and the establishment of ESG and climate reporting frameworks are both rapidly accelerating. As demand from our clients for ESG and climate solutions increases,

MSCI’s research, tools and solutions will aim to provide the transparency our clients need to better integrate ESG and climate risks and opportunities into their investment processes. Our ESG ratings and climate data and research are also utilized in our index, analytics and private asset tools and solutions – from ESG and climate indexes to incorporation of ESG and climate data in risk analysis to climate and emissions assessments specific to real estate assets and private equity portfolios. We are focused on being an influential thought leader on these climate-related considerations for the investment industry.

• Enhance distribution and content-enabling technology. We are deploying and developing advanced technology to drive integration and efficiencies, accelerate the pace of innovation and enhance distribution and the client experience. We increasingly utilize proprietary and third-party technologies, including artificial intelligence, machine learning and natural language processing tools, to enhance our ability to gather and analyze data, create content and automate and enhance the efficiency of many of our data processes. Our open-architecture, web-based Investment Solutions as a Service (“ISaaS”) offerings now include MSCI ONE, an integrated platform that provides access to investment content across a number of our products and solutions. These offerings help us deliver MSCI content and solutions to our clients at scale.

• Expand solutions that empower client customization. We aim to further enhance how we support our clients’ investment objectives by embedding our highly differentiated research, data and methodologies into solutions that allow clients to incorporate their custom preferences. For example, we will leverage existing capabilities and applications to deliver solutions that will allow clients to reflect their unique risk and return, ESG and climate and thematic preferences, as well as tax optimization strategies in a scalable way. In addition, we aim to meet client demand for flexible tools and data needed to construct and manage portfolios.

• Strengthen client relationships and grow into strategic partnerships with clients. We aim to be a strategic partner to members of the investment community by anticipating their needs, promoting the full breadth of our tools, data and solutions, and building a seamless experience across our offerings. The depth of knowledge of our client coverage teams, including dedicated account managers, ensures that we are engaging with our clients in a holistic and integrated manner. In particular, we are leveraging our existing offerings to serve new and developing client use cases. Through innovation, we aim to enhance the effectiveness and ease of use of our products as we further demonstrate the value of our content, applications and services.

• Execute strategic relationships and acquisitions with complementary content and technology companies. We regularly evaluate and selectively pursue strategic relationships with, and acquisitions of, providers of unique and differentiated content, products and technologies that we believe have the potential to complement, enhance or expand our offerings and client base. In order to drive value, we target acquisitions and strategic relationships that can be efficiently integrated into our existing operational structure and global sales network. For example, through our 2021 acquisition of Real Capital Analytics, Inc. (“RCA”), we expanded MSCI’s robust suite of real asset solutions, by allowing us to provide real estate industry professionals with more data, analytics and support tools to manage investments and understand performance and risk, including climate risks, within their portfolios.

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, a business model which has historically delivered stable revenue and predictable cash flows. Finally, our disciplined capital-allocation policy provides us with flexibility to balance internal resources and investment needs, acquisitions and shareholder returns through dividends and opportunistic 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, 2022, we had the following five operating segments: Index, Analytics, ESG and Climate, Real Assets and The Burgiss Group, LLC (“Burgiss”), which are presented as the following four reportable segments: Index, Analytics, ESG and Climate, and All Other – Private Assets. For reporting purposes, the Real Assets and Burgiss operating segments are combined and presented as All Other – Private Assets, as they did not meet the thresholds for separate presentation. During the year ended December 31, 2022, the Company renamed the Real Estate operating segment to Real Assets. The Burgiss operating segment represents the Company’s equity method investment in Burgiss. Financial results related to MSCI’s acquisition of RCA have

been included prospectively as a component of the Real Assets operating segment and presented as a component of the All Other – Private Assets reportable segment, commencing as of September 13, 2021 (the date we completed the acquisition).

Index

Clients use our indexes in 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, and asset allocation. We currently calculate more than 278,0002 end-of-day indexes daily and more than 16,000 indexes in real time. Clients access our index data directly from MSCI or from third-party vendors worldwide.

Our index product offerings include:

• MSCI Global Equity Indexes. MSCI Global Equity Indexes are designed to measure returns across a wide variety of equity markets, size segments, sectors and industries. As of December 31, 2022, we calculated indexes that covered more than 80 developed, emerging, frontier and standalone equity markets, as well as various regional indexes built from the component indexes.

• ESG and Climate Indexes. ESG and Climate Indexes are constructed from an underlying index by applying data from our ESG and Climate segment to additional screening or other criteria.

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

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

• Custom Indexes. Custom Indexes are calculated by applying additional criteria supplied by a client – such as stock exclusion lists, currency hedging rules, tax rates or special weighting – to an MSCI index. Investors with unique index requirements can build an index to meet their specific needs and better update index design over time to support their evolving investment 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.

• Real Estate Indexes. Real Estate Indexes provide transparency and insight to private real estate investment strategies.

In 2022, we launched a number of new indexes, including the following:

• MSCI Global Quarterly Property Index. The MSCI Global Quarterly Property Index tracks the property-level performance of quarterly-valued assets across the world’s major real estate markets. This index aims to help investors as they monitor and manage international real estate portfolios, particularly in the context of macroeconomic and geopolitical developments.

• MSCI ACWI IMI Virology Index. Part of MSCI’s previously announced strategic collaboration with Royalty Pharma plc, the MSCI ACWI IMI Virology Index aims to measure the performance of a set of companies associated with biotech innovation and the treatment of infectious diseases.

• MSCI Climate Action Indexes. The MSCI Climate Action Indexes are a suite of equity indexes that are designed to support investors with a strategy focused on companies that are leaders in their sectors with respect to climate transition activities, including in emissions reduction commitments, climate risk management and revenue from greener businesses.

• Bloomberg MSCI China ESG Index Suite. This index suite includes nine ESG indexes and is the first Bloomberg MSCI index suite that tracks the performance of the RMB-denominated bond and USD-denominated Chinese bond markets, while incorporating ESG and socially responsible investment considerations.

Our Index segment also includes revenues from licenses of GICS and 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. This classification system was developed in response to investors’ need for a comprehensive and consistent framework for classifying companies into industries.

2 The number of indexes includes different return versions (e.g., price, net and gross returns) but does not include different currency versions.

GICS is widely accepted as an industry analysis framework for investment research, portfolio management and asset allocation. GICS Direct is a dataset comprised of active 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, 2022, 58.0% 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, 2022, asset-based fees accounted for 40.5% 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, 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 to fuel growth in key areas across our business, such as our factor indexes and many of our climate risk and reporting offerings.

Our clients access our Analytics tools and content through our proprietary applications and application programming interfaces (“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 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. BarraOne allows clients to build equity, fixed income, and MAC portfolios with specific risk, ESG and climate exposures.

• Barra Portfolio Manager. Barra Portfolio Manager 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.

• Climate Lab Enterprise. Powered by MSCI’s climate data integrated with MSCI’s enterprise analytics infrastructure, Climate Lab Enterprise enables our clients to measure, manage and monitor net-zero commitments and climate exposure and risks. Climate Lab Enterprise is able to aggregate climate data across multiple portfolios and asset classes, providing clients the ability to understand alignment with their climate goals from the enterprise level down through portfolios to individual positions and issuers.

• Risk Insights. Our Risk Insights offering calculates, stores and delivers a broad range of risk measures to help investors identify trends and respond to rapid changes in markets. Risk Insights automates many tasks to allow investors to more quickly and effectively understand the overall level of risk in their portfolios, how that risk has changed, and what factors may have caused the changes.

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 ESG 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, 2022, 25.6% of our revenues were attributable to our Analytics segment.

ESG and Climate

The ESG and Climate segment3 offers products and services that help institutional investors understand how ESG and climate considerations can impact the long-term risk and return of their portfolio and individual security-level investments. We provide data, ratings, research and tools to help investors navigate increasing regulation, meet new client demands and better integrate ESG and climate elements into their investment processes.

In recent years, ESG and climate related issues have become key business priorities across industries. At MSCI, we believe our ESG and Climate solutions support ESG integration by strengthening transparency around ESG and climate metrics and helping to analyze and quantify ESG and climate risks. Investors commonly use our ESG and Climate solutions, including MSCI ESG Ratings, to help assess ESG-related financial risks in their investment processes and to help inform their investment decisions. Our ESG and Climate solutions are also used by some clients to help them identify investments that may generate a social or environmental impact or that may otherwise align with an investor’s ethical values.

Our ESG and Climate research team analyzes over 10,0004 entities worldwide, and we will continue to expand and deepen our coverage to help investors and others in their asset allocation, portfolio construction and risk management processes. Clients include global asset managers, leading asset owners, consultants, advisers, corporates and academics.

Our ESG 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. The MSCI ESG Industry Materiality Map is a public tool that explores the key ESG issues by GICS sub-industry or sector and their contribution to companies’ overall ESG ratings. 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 ESG Business Involvement Screening Research. MSCI ESG Business Involvement Screening Research is a screening service that enables institutional investors to manage ESG standards and restrictions reliably and efficiently. Asset managers, investment advisers and asset owners can access screening research through the online MSCI ESG Manager platform or a data feed to support alignment with their investment guidelines, implement client mandates or manage potential ESG portfolio risks.

• MSCI Climate Solutions. With 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. For example, in 2022, we launched Total Portfolio Footprinting, which helps financial institutions better understand the extent and impact of greenhouse gas emissions at companies they are financing and provides information needed to focus on sustainable business practices.

MSCI ESG ratings and certain other ESG 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 ESG and Climate equity and fixed income indexes. These Index products are designed to help institutional investors more effectively benchmark ESG investment performance, issue indexed investment products, as well as manage, measure and report on ESG mandates.

For a description of regulation applicable to MSCI ESG Research LLC, see “—Government Regulation” below.

3 Products and services in our ESG and Climate segment are provided by MSCI ESG Research LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of MSCI Inc. that is registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as an Investment Adviser under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. MSCI ESG Ratings are used as an input in the construction and calculation of MSCI ESG indexes, which are not subject to our SEC registration. MSCI indexes are products of MSCI Inc., and MSCI Limited is the benchmark administrator.

4 Does not include subsidiary-level companies.

For the year ended December 31, 2022, 10.2% of our revenues were attributable to our ESG and Climate segment.

All Other – Private Assets

For reporting purposes, our Real Assets and Burgiss operating segments are combined and presented as All Other – Private Assets.

Our Real Assets offerings include transaction data, benchmarks, return-analytics, climate assessments and market insights for tangible assets such as real estate and infrastructure. In 2021, we completed our acquisition of RCA to meaningfully accelerate our Real Assets strategy. RCA’s rich transaction and pricing data enhances our offering to clients and allows us to integrate this information in other MSCI products including indexes, climate risk models and other MSCI solutions.

Our Real Assets performance and risk analytics range from enterprise-wide to property-specific analytics. We also provide business intelligence products to real estate owners, managers, developers and brokers worldwide. Some of the risk analytics generated as part of our Real Assets offerings are also used in the products offered by our other operating segments.

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.

• MSCI Real Estate Enterprise Analytics. Our Real Estate Enterprise Analytics application offers an interactive, integrated view to private real estate investors and managers, providing them with the ability to evaluate and analyze the drivers of portfolio performance across an organization’s investments, as well as review exposures and concentrations across markets, asset types and increasingly diverse portfolios.

• MSCI Global Intel. Our Global 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. This tool comprises a consolidated set of global, regional, national, city and submarket indexes with segmentation by property type.

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

• MSCI Real Estate Climate Value-at-Risk (“RE Climate VaR”). Our RE Climate VaR solution provides forward-looking and return-based valuation assessments to measure climate-related risks for real estate assets in an investment portfolio. By calculating transition risk from changing legislation, regulation and sustainability strategies as well as physical risk from extreme weather impacts, RE Climate VaR offers a framework for investors to improve portfolio performance, risk management, regulatory reporting and progress towards broader sustainability goals.

• INCANS. Our INCANS solution enables investors to proactively measure and manage income risk. This offering uses intuitive dashboards, bond-equivalent rating scores and a proprietary global tenant grading system to enable investors to better understand the likelihood of current and future tenant default.

For the year ended December 31, 2022, 6.3% of our revenues were attributable to our Real Assets offerings.

Research and Product Development

We apply an integrated team approach to developing content across our operating segments. Our product management, research and product development, data operations and technology, and application development departments are at the center of this process. Our content is developed by a research and product development team comprised of mathematicians, economists, statisticians, financial engineers and industry experts. Content created in one segment can often be used for the creation of products in another segment. For example, the MAC models created in our Analytics segment offer a view of risk across market and asset classes, including private real estate, by incorporating content generated in the Real Assets operating segment. In addition, MSCI ESG indexes and our Climate Lab Enterprise analytics product are constructed using data from our ESG and Climate operating segment.

Through our relationships with the world’s largest investment institutions, we monitor investment trends and their drivers globally and support instrument valuation, risk modeling, portfolio construction, portfolio attribution, asset allocation and VaR simulation. An important way we monitor global investment trends and their implications for our business is through direct public consultations and client advisory panels and through the forum provided by our Advisory Council. Our Advisory Council typically

meets three times during the year to discuss current and emerging investment industry trends and is comprised of senior investment professionals from around the world and senior members of our research and product development team.

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, including by developing and launching our new open-architecture ISaaS services, many of which are available via modern, web-based platforms, such as our new MSCI ONE offering, or integrate with our clients’ existing ecosystems via APIs.

• Enhancing data processing by utilizing data science and machine learning in our data collection processes to more efficiently build scale and facilitate faster product enhancements and releases while also maintaining the highest quality standards.

• Enhancing information security by further strengthening our technology infrastructure and software security processes. We implement changes and upgrades to technology regularly and maintain processes to minimize risk on an ongoing basis, and we seek to improve employee awareness of cyber and information security issues through training.

• Modernizing our workplace to better support a remote and hybrid workforce that can collaborate and productively work from anywhere.

• Migrating products, data and services onto a cloud platform to accelerate the delivery of new capabilities that will help investors more swiftly and efficiently manage data and understand the drivers of risk and performance, drive automation across our corporate processes and minimize data center risks.

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; 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, which may, among other things, 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 Qontigo (formerly Axioma Inc.), BlackRock Solutions, Bloomberg Finance L.P. (“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.

ESG and Climate. Our ESG and Climate offerings compete with a growing number of companies that issue ESG data, ratings or research. For example, our ESG and Climate offerings compete with those from a range of competitors, including Sustainalytics Holding B.V. (a part of Morningstar, Inc.), Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (majority owned by Deutsche Börse AG), Trucost (an S&P Global Inc. business), Refinitiv (a London Stock Exchange Group business), Bloomberg and Moody’s Corporation.

All Other – Private Assets. We also have a variety of competitors for our offerings that provide data, market intelligence, indexes, and performance and risk attribution services relating to real estate and other private assets.

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. From time to time, we have also filed patent applications 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.

Corporate Responsibility

As a leader in providing ESG and climate solutions to investors, we also aim to demonstrate leading corporate responsibility practices and policies that are meaningful to our various stakeholders, including our clients, employees, shareholders and local communities. The Governance and Corporate Responsibility Committee of our Board of Directors provides oversight of our corporate responsibility strategy and activities and receives regular updates and reports from MSCI management, including our Chief Responsibility and Diversity Officer.

We are committed to continuing to develop and enhance our climate-focused strategies and to regularly reporting on our efforts. As part of our corporate responsibility efforts, we have published reports aligned with a number of international frameworks, including the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), the Sustainability Accounting Standard Board (SASB), CDP and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs’ Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG) as well as our carbon emissions metrics.

Additional information on our corporate responsibility progress, including our net-zero commitment and climate transition plan, 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.

Human Capital Management

MSCI is committed to creating a performance culture with a high degree of employee engagement. Our talent and leadership development programs are designed to ensure we have the right people with the necessary skills to deliver on MSCI’s strategy, including a workplace that values and promotes diversity, equity and inclusion (“DE&I”).

The Compensation, Talent and Culture Committee of our Board of Directors has oversight over talent management matters, including efforts relating to succession/progression planning, career progression and retention strategies, and learning and leadership development programs. In addition, this Committee oversees our efforts relating to our corporate culture, such as our DE&I strategy and our employee engagement. Our Chief Human Resources Officer, our Chief Responsibility and Diversity Officer and our Head of Talent report to our Board regularly on DE&I initiatives, our work towards enhancing corporate culture and our talent management strategies. We also engage with our shareholders around these aspects of our human capital management strategies.

The Board periodically reviews our executive talent, including our current leadership bench and succession/progression planning efforts relating to our entire executive team. Our Chief Executive Officer and our President and Chief Operating Officer also meet regularly with the heads of our functions to review talent plans, with an aim of identifying top talent with the most immediate or near-term potential to progress to the senior-most roles at MSCI.

MSCI is a global company with a highly diverse footprint. As of December 31, 2022, we employed 4,759 people, of which 49.7% of MSCI employees were located in the Asia Pacific region, 22.6% in Europe, Middle East and Africa, 18.7% in the U.S. and Canada, and 9.0% in Mexico and Brazil. For the one-year period ended December 31, 2022, voluntary turnover was 13.8% and involuntary turnover was 3.2%.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Diversity, equity and inclusion are core values of MSCI. We strive to empower our people to maximize their potential in an environment where all individuals are respected and encouraged to bring their authentic selves to work. MSCI’s culture embraces diverse experiences and perspectives, which we believe foster creativity and innovation. As a leading provider of tools and solutions to the global investment community, it is critical that DE&I principles are central to how we manage our business and global workforce. We firmly believe that a diverse team is a stronger team and that cultivating diverse, highly engaged talent is an important part of our success.

As of December 31, 2022, of those who self-identified, women represented 35.9% of our global employees, and people of color (defined as those who identify as Asian, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, American Indian or Alaska Native,

Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander or two or more races) represented 47.3% of our U.S. employees and 42.1% of our U.S. employees in management roles5. The U.S. represents 17.8% of our global workforce. Our most recent EEO-1 consolidated reports can be found on our website at https://www.msci.com/who-we-are/diversity-equity-and-inclusion. 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.

Our Chief Responsibility and Diversity Officer is responsible for operating across MSCI to align our DE&I goals with business outcomes. We have operationalized our DE&I strategy and alignment through our Executive DE&I Council (“EDC”) and our Inclusion and Belonging Council (“IBC”). The EDC consists of senior leaders and subject matter experts who develop and execute our DE&I efforts across three strategic pillars relating to talent, senior leader engagement and accountability, and stakeholder engagement.

The IBC proactively works with local leaders to adapt MSCI’s global DE&I strategy to local circumstances and requirements. The roughly 30 members on the IBC represent most geographies, functions and levels, including members of our employee resource groups (the Women’s Leadership Forum, Women in Tech, Pride & Allies, the Black Leadership Network, Asian Support Network, All Abilities Network and Hola! MSCI).

Our DE&I efforts aim to create a strong sense of belonging and inclusion, foster employee engagement, nurture a pipeline of diverse talent and position MSCI as a leading organization that recognizes diversity, equity and inclusion as strategic priorities. Additional information on our DE&I efforts and programs can be found on our website at https://www.msci.com/who-we-are/diversity-equity-and-inclusion. 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 Well-being

We offer a broad range of highly competitive compensation and benefits programs to our employees and their families, including same-sex domestic partners. These programs include health and welfare benefits, including an employee assistance program; enhanced maternity and paternity leave policies, including a global minimum standard applicable to all offices worldwide; contributions to defined contribution and defined benefit pensions plans globally and health savings accounts in the U.S.; life insurance; a global wellness initiative that can help employees improve their health and well-being; presentations on well-being topics, including retirement planning, parenting, meditation, stress management and nutrition; ergonomic equipment and desk assessments; and wellness rooms in all MSCI office locations.

Compensation at MSCI supports a culture of high performance and accountability. Our goal is to provide competitive compensation in the markets where we compete for talent. We believe in linking all employee compensation to Company, Product/Function and individual performance by making 100% of our employees eligible for annual cash bonuses. We strongly differentiate cash bonus payouts based on actual results against goals and for managers, how effectively they demonstrate behaviors consistent with our values and culture.

Senior employees and select other employees are eligible to participate in the MSCI Long-Term Incentive Program with awards of MSCI common stock that vest over a multi-year period. The goal of the Long-Term Incentive Program is to: (i) align the interests of eligible employees with those of our shareholders, (ii) enhance our “owner-operator” philosophy, (iii) recognize and reward potential long-term contributions, and (iv) retain key leaders and top performers.

In 2020, MSCI announced our hybrid-work initiative called the Future of Work at MSCI, and we formally began implementing this initiative in January 2022. For most of our employees, the Future of Work introduced a hybrid work environment allowing employees to work at times at the office and other times remotely, depending on the requirements of a specific role and the needs of our clients. The Future of Work at MSCI unites our inclusive culture with modern and flexible ways of working to give employees the accountability, responsibility and empowerment to perform at their very best, while keeping our clients at the center of all we do. As we continue to adapt and iterate how we work, employee feedback will remain central to this initiative.

Cultivating Talent and Employee Engagement

MSCI is committed to investing in employee learning and development. Throughout the year, we offer tools and workshops to help employees better understand how their work aligns with MSCI’s overall strategy, seek and receive real-time and transparent feedback and coaching, successfully deliver on their goals, and more effectively plan and develop their careers. MSCI also offers on demand learning tools covering a wide range of topics with numerous options for employees to pursue self-paced career development opportunities.

5 Management roles are employees in Managing Director, Executive Director or Vice President roles.

MSCI conducts an employee engagement survey at least annually that measures whether our approaches to performance, growth and career development are driving employee engagement. Managers receive anonymous feedback and are accountable for improving and enhancing the work environment to drive higher engagement. In our December 2022 employee engagement survey, we achieved a 78% response rate, and the percentage of respondents characterized as fully engaged was 74%, the highest since we implemented the engagement survey.

Additional information on our training programs and engagement metrics can be found on our website at https://www.msci.com/who-we-are/corporate-responsibility/social-practices. 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.

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 strive to meet or exceed all applicable laws, regulations and accepted practices relating to workplace safety. We have extensive safety policies, standards and procedures that all employees are required to follow.

In particular, the COVID-19 pandemic has underscored for us the importance of keeping our employees safe and healthy. In response to the pandemic, we have taken numerous steps to support our employees, including transitioning to a hybrid work environment for most employees, enhancing our sick leave policies, engaging with external health and ergonomics consultants and increasing the use of technology to allow our employees to remain fully engaged, productive and well. We continue to closely monitor and manage the situation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and follow local requirements where our offices are located globally.

Government Regulation

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

The United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (“UK FCA”) authorized MSCI Limited (a subsidiary of MSCI Inc.) to be the benchmark administrator for applicable MSCI indexes. Information about index regulation is periodically updated on our website at https://www.msci.com/index-regulation. 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.

MSCI ESG Research LLC is a registered investment adviser and must comply with the requirements of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (the “Advisers Act”) and related SEC regulations. Such requirements relate to, among other things, disclosure obligations, recordkeeping and reporting requirements, marketing restrictions and general anti-fraud prohibitions. It is possible that in addition to MSCI ESG Research LLC, other entities in our corporate family may be required to register as an investment adviser under the Advisers Act or comply with similar laws or requirements in states or foreign jurisdictions.

A subsidiary of the Company is registered with the State Council Information Office of the Ministry of Commerce and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce in China as a foreign institution supplying financial information services in China. This license is currently administered by the Cyberspace Administration of China.

Information About Our Executive Officers

Name						Age						Position
Henry A. Fernandez						64						Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
C.D. Baer Pettit						58						Director, President and Chief Operating Officer
Andrew C. Wiechmann						43						Chief Financial Officer
Robert J. Gutowski						55						General Counsel
Scott A. Crum						66						Chief Human Resources Officer

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 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 Royalty Pharma plc, Stanford University, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology and its affiliate, KIMC, the Hoover Institution, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the Foreign Policy Association, and Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York. Mr. Fernandez previously served on the boards of trustees at 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, the Company’s Chief Operating Officer since January 2020 and a Director on the Company’s Board since January 2023. As President and Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Pettit oversees the Company's business functions, including client coverage, marketing, product management, research and product development, technology and operations. He previously served as Chief Operating Officer 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. 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. 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 Instruments Corp. from 1997 to 2000. Mr. Crum holds a Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in industrial relations from Southern Methodist University.

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 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 (http://ir.msci.com).

We also use our Investor Relations homepage, Corporate Responsibility homepage and corporate Twitter account (@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 homepage and Corporate Responsibility homepage, and our social media channels are not, however, a part of or incorporated by reference in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.