The Single, Most Powerful Standard
The ICB is expected to become an instant global industry standard. Leading organisations who are already using the existing FTSE Group and Dow Jones Indexes systems, and who are therefore expected to convert to the ICB, include the following:
- The world's largest stock exchanges, including NASDAQ and the New York Stock Exchange in the U.S.; the London Stock Exchange, Euronext, SWX Swiss Exchange in Europe; and the JSE in South Africa.
- Major index providers in addition to FTSE Group and the Dow Jones Indexes, including FXI (FTSE/Xinhua) in China, the Hang Seng (HSI) in Hong Kong, the Russell 3000 Index family in the U.S. and STOXX Ltd. for its indexes across Europe.
- Prominent financial media including the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, SmartMoney Magazine and Dow Jones Newswires.
Transparent and Rules-Driven
The ICB will be managed on a transparent and rules-driven basis. FTSE Group and Dow Jones Indexes will establish an advisory committee to oversee the ICB. The committee will advise Dow Jones Indexes and FTSE Group on the development of and future changes to the classification system and in certain cases, on the classification of individual stocks.
The ICB is an evolution of the FTSE Global Classification System and the Dow Jones Global Classification Standard. It contains four classification levels, adding a "Supersector" level to the three-tiered FTSE Global Classification System.
Most Relevant and Practical
The ICB has been designed to be the most relevant and user-friendly classification standard for trading and investment decisions. Based on the historic performance and correlations of companies, the ICB supplies a better measure of returns at the sector level.
- 10 Industries help investors monitor broad industry trends
- 18 Supersectors can be used for trading
- 39 Sectors provide the best investment management tool
- 104 Subsectors allow detailed analysis
Timeline
The existing FTSE and Dow Jones Indexes industry classification systems are scheduled to be fully converted to the ICB by the end of 2004. Indicative data will be available by June 2004, to ensure a low-cost and seamless transition for users of the existing FTSE and Dow Jones Indexes classification systems.
For more information please contact FTSE at info@ftse.com .
