MSCI provides stock market indices, portfolio analytics tools and environmental, social and governance data used by asset managers, pension funds and other institutional investors to benchmark and analyze their investments. Its indices, including widely tracked benchmarks for international and emerging market stocks, are licensed to fund providers who create index funds and ETFs designed to track MSCI's methodology, earning MSCI licensing fees based on the assets invested in those tracking products. As more money has flowed into passive, index-tracking investment strategies over the past decade, MSCI has benefited from that structural shift even without needing to actively manage money itself. The company has also built a significant ESG and climate data business, providing scoring and analytics that help investors evaluate companies on environmental and governance criteria, an area that has grown alongside investor interest in sustainability-focused investing.