The Evolution of Industry Classifications: GICS Changes and Beyond

The Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS®) is a widely used taxonomy for categorizing companies into sectors and industries. This system has been critical in supporting the financial community’s need for accurate, complete, and standard industry definitions to enhance investment research and asset management processes.

Recently GICS® made significant changes to its classification that investors will need to be aware of to consider the impact on their investment strategies and goals. Additionally, industry classification options beyond GICS have developed to address the growing need of investors to accurately identify opportunities in emerging areas such as crypto. In this webinar, our panel of experts will discuss how investors may be affected by the recent GICS changes, as well as the evolution of industry classifications, including:

• The changes being made to stay current with the evolving industry landscape and the impact on investors
• How the changes may affect portfolio allocation decisions
• Additional granularity of the REITs sector
• Impact on company sustainability profiles, specifically in terms of their GHG footprint
• How topic tags and additional classification systems can be used outside of GICS