MSCI

“For example, a number of our clients have obtained regulatory clearance to create indexes for use as the basis of ETFs that they manage and others have invested in direct indexing strategies, allowing investors to purchase individual stocks making up an index rather than investing in a fund or ETF. Similarly, some of our clients who currently license our risk or sustainability and climate data to analyze their portfolio risk may develop their own tools to collect data and assess risk or embed sustainability considerations into their investment processes, making our products or services unnecessary for them.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Additionally, AI-enabled tools may allow clients, including asset managers, asset owners, banks, hedge funds and others, to develop in-house capabilities to replace our products such as custom indexes, risk analytics, and sustainability and climate data.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“The use of AI by us or by others may also result in, and increase our exposure to, cyber-attacks or other security incidents, including those that involve confidential or personal information (e.g., proprietary, third-party, employee or client information).”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“For example, more broker-dealers, data suppliers, credit rating agencies, analytics firms, technology providers (including AI providers) or other market participants or vendors could begin developing their own content such as proprietary risk analytics, sustainability and climate data or indexes. Factors such as increases in the availability of free or relatively inexpensive information through internet sources and through the use of AI or other low-cost delivery systems, advances in cloud computing, increased use of open source code, the ability of machine learning and other AI to process and organize large data sets, as well as client development of proprietary applications, have further reduced barriers to entry in some cases and our competitors may use these tools to deliver solutions at lower prices, or these tools may be used in a way that significantly increases access to publicly available information.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“The process of enhancing existing, and developing new, products and services and expanding our offerings to new client types is complex and may become increasingly complex and expensive in the future, including due to new technology and AI, competition for talent, workforce costs and evolving client expectations. Expansion into new product and service offerings and client types also increases the complexity of our go-to-market, product development, operational and regulatory requirements and may require substantial additional investment.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“The increased presence of AI in the market could also lead to increased expectations from clients and market participants regarding the quality, features, timeliness and use cases of our products and services.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“There is no guarantee that any intellectual property rights that we may obtain will protect our competitive advantages, nor is there any assurance that our competitors will not infringe upon our rights, including through the use of AI models. Furthermore, our competitors may independently develop and protect products and services that are the same or similar to ours.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Further, third-party AI tools and model providers may change their model behavior, pricing or terms, which could adversely affect our offerings, increase our costs or disrupt our operations.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“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.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“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.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“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.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Table of Contents •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.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“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.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“•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.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“We currently incorporate, and expect to continue to incorporate, AI technologies, including generative AI, into our products and operations, and these uses of AI may become significantly more important over time. There are significant and evolving risks involved in utilizing AI, and there is no assurance that our usage of AI will help our products and operations become more effective, efficient or profitable, or otherwise achieve our intended outcomes.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Failure to protect our intellectual property adequately could harm us, our brand or reputation and affect our ability to compete effectively. We rely primarily on a combination of trade secrets, patents, copyrights, trademarks, laws regarding unfair competition and the misappropriation of intellectual property, technical measures and contractual protections, to obtain, maintain, protect, defend and enforce our intellectual property rights, including our proprietary rights in our content, products and services.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“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.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Our clients may seek for a variety of reasons to negotiate to pay us lower asset-based fee percentages, which are sometimes calculated as a percentage of the relevant product’s total expense ratio (“TER”). Additionally, competition is intense among our clients that offer or manage indexed investment products, including ETFs, and low fees are one of the competitive differentiators. Where an investment product’s TER determines our fees, a reduction in the TER may negatively impact our revenues.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“A portion of our revenues comes from clients who use our indexes as the basis for indexed investment products. These fees are primarily based on a client’s assets under management or trading volumes, and if the level of assets under management or trading volumes declines, we expect our fee-based revenue to show a corresponding decline.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“The value of an investment product’s assets may increase or decrease in response to changes in market performance and cash inflows and outflows, which could impact our revenues.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Additionally, a portion of our revenues comes from products and services that relate to certain investment trends. A decline in the equity markets or movement away from such investment trends, including as a result of changing economic conditions or political or regulatory concerns or scrutiny, could decrease demand for our related products and services, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“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.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“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.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“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.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“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.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Our products and services support the investment processes of our clients, which relate to, in the aggregate, trillions of dollars in assets.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“A portion of our revenues are from asset-based fees or fees based on trading volumes and some of these revenue streams are concentrated in some of our largest clients, including BlackRock, and in our largest market, the U.S.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“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.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“MSCI is exposed to potential reputational and credibility concerns, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Anti-ESG and anti-climate sentiment may impact demand for our products, limit our ability to retain clients or lead to heightened scrutiny of our methodologies or content.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Compliance with regulations affecting benchmarks or their uses, as well as related technical standards and guidance, could negatively impact our business and results of operations. Benchmarks, which include the indexes we provide, are subject to regulations that may require changes in our business practices, product offerings or our ability to offer indexes in certain jurisdictions. Such impacts could include, without limitation, increased costs, including direct regulatory fees and costs; diminished intellectual property rights; methodology requirements or restrictions; product requirements or restrictions; constraints on the fees we charge; constraints on our ability to meet contractual commitments with data providers; or constraints on how we offer our products.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Additionally, guidance issued by the European Securities and Markets Authority (“ESMA”) may affect benchmark administrators and their clients. For instance, the ESMA Guidelines on ETFs and other Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (“UCITS”) Issues impose disclosure requirements for indexes used in UCITS funds, such as making index constituents and their respective weightings easily accessible free of charge to investors on a delayed and periodic basis. These requirements could increase the compliance obligations for benchmark administrators, affect the eligibility of certain indexes for use in UCITS funds and influence the demand for specific products.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Table of Contents Globally, the benchmark industry faces heightened scrutiny and potential new regulations. The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) has recommended that benchmark administrators voluntarily publicly disclose whether they comply with its principles for financial benchmarks. Other jurisdictions have also indicated they may consider potential benchmark regulation or conduct reviews of the benchmark industry.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Further, laws, rules or regulations affecting users of our indexes, such as sanctions that prohibit users of our indexes from investing or transacting in markets or securities included in our indexes, can have an indirect impact on our indexes, including their construction and composition. •ESG Ratings. The EU has adopted a new regulation requiring market participants providing ESG ratings in the EU to become authorized and supervised by ESMA. The regulation becomes effective in July 2026 and imposes requirements relating to governance, conflicts of interest, transparency of methodologies and ongoing supervisory obligations.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“A number of other jurisdictions, including Japan, Hong Kong SAR, Taiwan, India and Singapore, have completed, or are in the process of developing, legislation or codes of conduct for ESG rating or data providers. Regulation of ESG ratings and data providers could impose significant compliance burdens and costs on our Sustainability and Climate products and services.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Our clients use our products for a variety of purposes, including benchmarking, performance attribution, portfolio construction and risk management, and to support investment strategies including sustainability, climate, factor, thematic, private asset and MAC investing.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“In addition, increased regulatory and political focus on ESG and climate-related investment considerations has impacted our clients. Certain of our clients use our sustainability and climate data and tools to build and manage portfolios; perform risk management; benchmark their investment performance; and construct and manage ETFs and other indexed financial products.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Technology Risks Any failures, disruptions, instability or vulnerabilities in our information technology architecture, platforms, vendors and service providers, production and delivery systems, software, code, networks, the internet or other systems may disrupt our operations, 18 Table of Contents cause our products or services to be unavailable or fail and impose delays or additional costs, or impose conditions or restrictions on our products or services and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“This “technical debt” can increase the risk of outages, disruptions, performance degradation, defects, and cybersecurity incidents.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“We rely on open source code to develop software and to incorporate it in our products and internal systems.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“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.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“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.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“•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.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“In addition, certain of our suppliers are also our competitors, and they could change the terms of the data and products that they supply to us or refuse to continue to supply us with data and products in order to gain competitive advantage against us.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“In addition, some of our competitors could enter into exclusive contracts with our suppliers, including with certain stock exchanges, which could preclude us from receiving certain data or other materials or restrict us in our use of such data or other materials.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Competition and financial and budgetary pressures affecting clients may cause price reductions or loss of market share, which may materially adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations. Competition exists across all markets for our products and services.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“An element of our growth strategy is growth through acquisitions, strategic partnerships and investments.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“A material portion of our revenues is concentrated in some of our largest clients. For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025, our largest client organization by revenue, BlackRock, accounted for 10.8% of our consolidated operating revenues.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“In addition, as our business has grown and evolved over time, we have incurred technical debt resulting from, among other things, legacy code and system architectures, deferred maintenance and upgrades, short-term workarounds, unremediated issues, rapid product development, acquisitions, and the integration of new technologies into existing platforms. Such technical debt can exacerbate these risks by increasing the potential for system outages, performance degradation, defects, cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and testing and remediation limitations.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“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.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“The use of mobile and cloud technologies, as well as remote work arrangements, may heighten these risks.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“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.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“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.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

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

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“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.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“•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.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“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.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“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.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“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.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“In addition, in the ordinary course of business, suppliers of Vendor Products are subject to various forms of cyber-attacks or other security incidents. Cyber-attacks, vulnerabilities in our suppliers’ software, systems or networks, failure of our suppliers’ safeguards, policies or procedures and other incidents related to our suppliers’ systems and networks, including supply-chain compromises, may cause material interruptions or malfunctions in our or such suppliers’ websites, applications or data processing and delivery, or may compromise the confidentiality and integrity of affected information.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Technology Risks Any failures, disruptions, instability or vulnerabilities in our information technology architecture, platforms, vendors and service providers, production and delivery systems, software, code, networks, the internet or other systems may disrupt our operations, 18 Table of Contents cause our products or services to be unavailable or fail and impose delays or additional costs, or impose conditions or restrictions on our products or services and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“If our processes, confidentiality policies, conflict of interest policies or information barrier procedures fail or are insufficient, including as a result of intentional or unintentional human error, manual process failure, system error or other failure, then unauthorized release of, access to, or disclosure or misappropriation of data, including material non-public information or other confidential information (e.g., certain client portfolio data, index composition data, or ESG rating data), could harm our brand and reputation, lead to litigation, regulatory actions or penalties, and result in a loss of client confidence, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“We 19 Table of Contents and our vendors and service providers are subject to security risks, including cyber-attacks and other security incidents, such as phishing scams or other social engineering attacks, deepfake attacks, hacking, tampering, intrusions, viruses, malware (including ransomware) and denial-of-service attacks – all of which could be exacerbated by AI technologies.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“We may be exposed to more targeted and more sophisticated cyber-attacks and other security incidents because of our role or prominence in the global marketplace, including our handling of client portfolio data, the composition and use of our indexes and ESG ratings.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“The use of AI by us or by others may also result in, and increase our exposure to, cyber-attacks or other security incidents, including those that involve confidential or personal information (e.g., proprietary, third-party, employee or client information).”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Operational Risks We are dependent on third parties to supply data, applications and services for our products and services and are dependent on certain vendors to distribute our products.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“We rely on third-party suppliers of data, applications and services, including data from stock exchanges and other suppliers (collectively, “Vendor Products”), and depend on the accuracy and quality of Vendor Products and the ability and willingness of such suppliers to deliver, support, enhance and develop new products on a timely and cost-effective basis.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“In addition, certain of our most significant data and technology agreements are subject to periodic renewal or re-pricing, and we may be required to accept significantly higher fees or other less favorable commercial or legal terms in order to maintain access to key Vendor Products.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Certain Vendor Products are concentrated among a small number of suppliers, and we also rely on major cloud and infrastructure providers to host and deliver certain products and services, so an adverse negotiation, dispute or renewal outcome with, or our inability to replace, a key supplier or to obtain comparable data or services on acceptable terms could affect our costs or ability to deliver products and services.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“We also rely on third-party vendors, including some competitors, to distribute our data to clients. Should any of our key vendors refuse to distribute our data for any reason or require that we pay them new or additional fees in connection with the distribution of our data, we would need to find alternative ways to distribute our data, which could increase costs or disrupt operations.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Laws and regulations applicable to AI, including intellectual property, data privacy and security, consumer protection, competition and equal opportunity laws, continue to develop and may be inconsistent from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Laws, rules, regulations and standards governing privacy, data collection and AI impact our ability to collect, manage, store, use and otherwise process personal data and other information. We operate across jurisdictions with differing and often conflicting data privacy laws, including extraterritorial requirements, which continue to expand in scope and complexity.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Emerging AI regulations, such as the European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act, impose requirements for transparency, fairness and oversight of AI systems. These regulations may directly affect our operations, including the use of AI in hiring, employee performance monitoring and client-facing applications, by requiring audits, documentation and human oversight. Compliance with evolving AI regulatory frameworks may increase costs, impact our product development, restrict the use of certain applications of AI and expose us to liability for violations of applicable laws, regulations or contracts.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“A client’s activity with us may decrease for a variety of reasons, including the client’s level of satisfaction with our products and services; the effectiveness of our support services; the pricing of our products and services; the pricing and quality of competing products or services; client events such as mergers, acquisitions, restructurings, or business closures; or the effects of changes in economic conditions and the global capital markets.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Our business is impacted by economic conditions, including economic uncertainty, market downturns and volatility in the global capital markets and evolving investment trends (including volatility and trends resulting from geopolitical events and trade policy changes, including tariffs, retaliatory tariffs and related trade tensions).”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Factors affecting the availability of our products and services and our information technology systems and networks, such as loss of service, operational failures, human error, model error, terrorist attacks, geopolitical instability, climate-related events (e.g., hurricanes, floods or other natural disasters), outbreak of pandemic or contagious disease, power loss, telecommunications failures, technical breakdowns, internet failures or cyber-attacks, could impair our or our third-party service provider systems’ operations or interrupt their availability for extended periods of time or impact the availability of our or our third-party service provider’s personnel.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Our business is impacted by economic conditions, including economic uncertainty, market downturns and volatility in the global capital markets and evolving investment trends (including volatility and trends resulting from geopolitical events and trade policy changes, including tariffs, retaliatory tariffs and related trade tensions).”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Certain Vendor Products are concentrated among a small number of suppliers, and we also rely on major cloud and infrastructure providers to host and deliver certain products and services, so an adverse negotiation, dispute or renewal outcome with, or our inability to replace, a key supplier or to obtain comparable data or services on acceptable terms could affect our costs or ability to deliver products and services.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Because we have incurred variable rate indebtedness, and we may incur additional variable rate indebtedness, we are subject to interest rate risk generally, which could cause our debt service obligations to increase significantly. Reference rates used to determine the applicable interest rates for our variable rate debt have risen significantly over the past few years.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Financial Risks Our revenues, expenses, assets and liabilities are subject to foreign currency exchange rate fluctuation risk, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations. We are subject to foreign currency exchange rate fluctuation risk. Exchange rate movements can impact the U.S. dollar reported value of our revenues, expenses, assets and liabilities denominated in non-U.S. dollar currencies or where the currency of such items is different than the functional currency of the entity where these items were recorded.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Our business is impacted by economic conditions, including economic uncertainty, market downturns and volatility in the global capital markets and evolving investment trends (including volatility and trends resulting from geopolitical events and trade policy changes, including tariffs, retaliatory tariffs and related trade tensions).”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Financial Risks Our revenues, expenses, assets and liabilities are subject to foreign currency exchange rate fluctuation risk, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations. We are subject to foreign currency exchange rate fluctuation risk. Exchange rate movements can impact the U.S. dollar reported value of our revenues, expenses, assets and liabilities denominated in non-U.S. dollar currencies or where the currency of such items is different than the functional currency of the entity where these items were recorded.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“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.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Regulators have examined the role of various types of third-party information providers, including index and model providers and proxy advisors, in the asset-management ecosystem. Regulatory or legislative developments that expand or alter the definition of investment advice, proxy advice, or that subject index providers, model providers or ESG ratings providers to fiduciary or adviser-style obligations, could affect our businesses. For instance, in the United States, the SEC has previously sought public comment on the role of index providers and whether they are acting as investment advisers under the Investment Advisers Act.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“In addition, the majority of our employees are located in offices outside of the U.S., and a number of those employees are located in emerging market locations. The cost of establishing and maintaining these offices, including costs related to information technology, as well as the costs of attracting, training and retaining employees in these locations may be higher, or may increase at a faster rate, than we anticipate.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Over the last several years, many jurisdictions and intergovernmental organizations have been discussing or are in the process of implementing proposals that may change aspects of the existing framework under which our tax obligations are determined in many of the jurisdictions in which we operate. Changes in tax laws, including the implementation of a 15% global minimum tax under OECD BEPS Pillar 2, uncertainty regarding its application to U.S.-based companies, potential state-level divergence from federal tax legislation in the U.S. and abroad and potential corporate tax rate increases in the U.S. and abroad could materially affect our tax liabilities, effective tax rate and compliance costs.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“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.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“In addition, the majority of our employees are located in offices outside of the U.S., and a number of those employees are located in emerging market locations. The cost of establishing and maintaining these offices, including costs related to information technology, as well as the costs of attracting, training and retaining employees in these locations may be higher, or may increase at a faster rate, than we anticipate.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“For example, a number of our clients have obtained regulatory clearance to create indexes for use as the basis of ETFs that they manage and others have invested in direct indexing strategies, allowing investors to purchase individual stocks making up an index rather than investing in a fund or ETF. Similarly, some of our clients who currently license our risk or sustainability and climate data to analyze their portfolio risk may develop their own tools to collect data and assess risk or embed sustainability considerations into their investment processes, making our products or services unnecessary for them.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Factors affecting the availability of our products and services and our information technology systems and networks, such as loss of service, operational failures, human error, model error, terrorist attacks, geopolitical instability, climate-related events (e.g., hurricanes, floods or other natural disasters), outbreak of pandemic or contagious disease, power loss, telecommunications failures, technical breakdowns, internet failures or cyber-attacks, could impair our or our third-party service provider systems’ operations or interrupt their availability for extended periods of time or impact the availability of our or our third-party service provider’s personnel.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“For example, a U.S. Executive Order prohibiting many of our clients from transacting in the securities of certain Chinese companies resulted in our decision to remove these companies from relevant indexes to support our clients’ needs for indexes to be replicable in investment portfolios.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Table of Contents Demand for our products and services is still nascent in many parts of the world, particularly in certain emerging markets where investment management practices, including risk management and sustainability and climate integration, are less established. In addition, the data required to model local securities in some emerging markets might be difficult to source and local investment product nuances may be difficult or costly to model.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“For example, the EU Benchmark Regulation (“EU BMR”) and UK Benchmarks Regulation (“UK BMR”) impose distinct requirements. Following Brexit, the EU BMR provided a transition period until December 31, 2025, allowing EU-regulated entities to use benchmarks from non-EU administrators. Beginning January 1, 2026, most of our indexes fall outside EU supervision and remain under UK oversight.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself