Markets Magazine
Index Providers Rule the World—For Now, at Least
Decisions about what to include are leaving some on the outs.
In September 2015, Peru’s then-finance minister abruptly changed his plans and hopped on a jet to New York. By the time Alonso Segura Vasi landed in the U.S., officials from the country’s central bank and securities regulator were also en route to join him.
What prompted a bevy of Peruvian officials to make the eight-hour journey wasn’t a matter of urgent statecraft or diplomacy. Instead, it was a rumor that the financial company MSCI Inc. might oust the South American country from its widely followed emerging-markets index, a prospect that Vasi knew required immediate intervention.