Scientific Beta

Index Universe: "Indexing market participants are speaking out against making indexing data free for the public good, after one institution launched a free data provision service on its smart beta indices. The debate comes as competition in the indexing market is heating up. Last month EDHEC-Risk Institute announced that it would offer investors free access to data on a wide range of so-called "smart beta" indices."

Index Universe 09/05/2013

"(...) Indexing market participants are speaking out against making indexing data free for the public good, after one institution launched a free data provision service on its smart beta indices. The debate comes as competition in the indexing market is heating up. Last month EDHEC-Risk Institute announced that it would offer investors free access to data on a wide range of so-called "smart beta" indices. The move is likely to put pressure on commercial index providers’ business models, and the—normally quiet—index providers have started speaking out. (...) EDHEC-Risk, the financial research institute of France-based EDHEC business school, publishes a wide range of data covering popular smart beta equity indices on a new website, scientificbeta.com. It is part of a broader drive by EDHEC-Risk to increase transparency in the indexing sector. Earlier this week the institute said that regulators should insist on the full transparency of financial benchmarks to allow index users to assess potential risks. (...) Noël Amenc, CEO of ERI Scientific Beta at EDHEC-Risk, is keen to ensure they are seen as operating in the smart beta space. "We don’t want to compete with cap-weighting and with providers of indices that use this methodology. Differentiation amongst such firms is primarily a question of brand, as cap-weighted indices on the same markets are very highly correlated with each other.” (...)"