Scientific Beta

Index Universe: In March this year EDHEC-Risk Institute made headlines when it announced it had launched a new smart beta platform offering investors free data. The move saw several commercial index providers speak out against the move arguing that data provision is part of a commercial business model and necessarily paid for. Since then EDHEC has been highly vocal over its position on transparency and data availability.

Index Universe 19/11/2013

"(...) In March this year EDHEC-Risk Institute made headlines when it announced it had launched a new smart beta platform offering investors free data. The move saw several commercial index providers speak out against the move arguing that data provision is part of a commercial business model and necessarily paid for. Since then EDHEC has been highly vocal over its position on transparency and data availability. It has spoken out against the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO's) guidelines for ETFs arguing that it side-stepped the matter of index transparency. Most recently it took issue with the European Fund and Asset Management Association’s (EFAMA's) criticism of the rules that European regulator, European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), laid out. It even made several calls for users to insist on full transparency earlier this year. IU.eu’s European editor, Rebecca Hampson, talks to Frederic Ducoulombier, director at EDHEC-Risk in Asia, about why investors should have access to index data and why it is being pushed so fiercely. (...)"