The 10-K against last year's
213 changes: 44 added, 29 removed, 140 reworded
10-K 0001408198-26-000011 (2026-02-06) vs 10-K 0001408198-25-000053 (2025-02-07) Not compared: Legal Proceedings.
The redline
The paragraph that changed most in each section
Marked against last year's 10-K:
cut words struck through, new words highlighted and underlined.
Risk Factors 248 words changed in this paragraph; it is 54% similar to last year's version.
Despite internal testing and in some cases testing or use by clients, our products or services have contained, and in the future may contain, errors in our our, third-party or third-party client-provided data, calculations, methodologies or analysis, including serious defects or malfunctions. This risk may grow with the increase in the number, type and complexity of our products, such as complex client-designed custom indexes that may require unique and more manual implementation and maintenance. For instance, certain of our processes utilize manual data entry or collection, which increases the risk of human error. 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. If we detect any errors before we release or deliver a product or service or publish a methodology or analysis, we might have to suspend or delay the product or service release or delivery for an extended period of time while we address the problem. We may not discover errors that affect our products or services or enhancements until after they are deployed, and we may need to provide enhancements or corrections to address such errors, and in certain cases it may be impracticable to do so. If undetected errors exist in our products or services, or if our products or services fail to perform properly due to defects, malfunctions or similar problems, it could result in harm to our brand or reputation, increased costs, lost sales and revenues, delays in commercial release, third-party claims, contractual disputes, negative publicity, delays in or loss of market acceptance of our products or services, license terminations or renegotiations or unexpected expenses and diversion of resources to remedy or mitigate such errors, defects or malfunctions. In addition, defects or flawed outputs in regulated products, including indexes and ESG ratings, may prompt regulatory inquiries, supervisory actions or enforcement proceedings that could require changes to products or controls and impose significant fines or other remediation costs. The realization of any of these events could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.
Source: Item 1A, 10-K 0001408198-26-000011 vs Item 1A, 10-K 0001408198-25-000053
MD&A 226 words changed in this paragraph; it is 35% similar to last year's version.
Source: Item 7, 10-K 0001408198-26-000011 vs Item 7, 10-K 0001408198-25-000053
Accounting Policies 91 words changed in this paragraph; it is 40% similar to last year's version.
Source: Item 8, Note 1 – INTRODUCTION AND BASIS OF PRESENTATION, 10-K 0001408198-26-000011 vs Item 8, Note 1 – INTRODUCTION AND BASIS OF PRESENTATION, 10-K 0001408198-25-000053
Every change, by type
Sentences and paragraphs added, removed or reworded
Sentences and paragraphs of MSCI's Risk Factors and MD&A, 10-K 2026-02-06 against 10-K 2025-02-07. Each links to the text at sec.gov.
AddedRisk Factors
Our operations rely on the secure collection, retrieval, storage, transmission and other processing of confidential, sensitive, proprietary and other types of data and information that is managed internally and with third-party vendors and service providers. We
AddedRisk Factors
divert resources. We could also be subject to suits by parties claiming breach of the terms of licenses, which could be costly for us to defend. Open source code may also contain security vulnerabilities or malicious code (including backdoors), which could impair our products or systems, reduce client confidence, harm our reputation and expose us to litigation or other liability. Any of these factors could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.
AddedRisk Factors
Competitors and new market entrants may use AI to develop products that compete with our offerings at lower price points, with faster time-to-market or with additional or better capabilities, which could impair our ability to compete effectively and put pressure on our revenues and subscriptions. 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. Large-scale data scraping and generative AI models trained on publicly available information could also diminish the perceived uniqueness and commercial value of our proprietary content. 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.
AddedRisk Factors
The models underlying our use of AI technologies may be incorrectly or inadequately designed or implemented. If the content, analyses, or recommendations produced by AI are, or are perceived to be, biased, inaccurate, misleading, of poor quality, unethical or otherwise deficient or flawed, any of which may not be easily detectable or may be exacerbated when AI systems operate with greater autonomy, our business may be adversely affected. AI technologies, including generative AI, can produce outputs that appear authoritative but contain factual errors, “hallucinations,” or unintended biases. If AI-generated content in our products contains such errors, we could face client losses, reputational damage and potential legal liability. Failure to maintain appropriate oversight, governance frameworks, testing, documentation and monitoring could exacerbate these risks.
AddedRisk Factors
We have adopted principles and governance frameworks designed to support responsible use, data protection and risk management, but these may prove insufficient to prevent harmful outcomes or may not keep pace with the rapid evolution of AI capabilities and risks.
AddedRisk Factors
•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. Certain of our Sustainability and Climate products are expected to be in scope. We may incur significant costs to achieve and maintain authorization, modify our operations or product offerings and comply with ongoing supervisory requirements.
AddedRisk Factors
Because the financial services industry is highly regulated, we could become subject to other existing or new regulatory frameworks in the jurisdictions where we operate, which could increase our costs and risks, require changes to our products and services, or otherwise impact our business. Additionally, there has been increased attention on and scrutiny of index providers and
AddedRisk Factors
revolving credit facility includes a springing minimum interest coverage ratio, tested only during any period in which we do not maintain specified investment grade credit ratings.
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AddedMD&A
Our principal business model is generally to license annual, recurring subscriptions for the majority of our products and services for a fee due in advance of the service period. A portion of our fees comes from clients who use our indexes as the basis for index-linked investment products. Such fees are primarily based on a client’s assets under management (“AUM”), trading volumes and fee levels.
AddedMD&A
In the first quarter of 2025, we renamed our “ESG and Climate” operating and reportable segment to “Sustainability and Climate” to reflect the breadth of our product offerings. There were no changes to the composition of our reportable segments or information reviewed by the chief operating decision maker and no impact on our historical segment operating results.
AddedMD&A
The effective tax rate for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024 was 19.5% and 18.2%, respectively. The increase in the effective tax rate in 2025 was driven by $38 million of expense recognized in connection with a multi-phase internal legal entity restructuring that commenced in the period and was completed subsequent to year end.
AddedMD&A
A substantial portion of MSCI’s operating revenues is derived from recurring subscriptions or licenses for products and services that are ongoing in nature and provided over contractually agreed periods, which are subject to renewal or cancellation upon the expiration of the then-current term. In addition, we generate non-recurring revenues from one-time sales and other transactions or services that are discrete in nature or that have a defined life. The operating metrics defined below help management assess the stability and growth of this recurring-revenue base and track non-recurring revenues. There have been no changes to the methodologies used to compute these metrics compared with prior years.
AddedMD&A
Run Rate estimates, at a specific point in time, the annualized value of the recurring portion of executed client contracts (“Client Contracts”) expected to generate revenues over the next 12 months, assuming that all such Client Contracts are renewed and using fixed foreign exchange rates. Run Rate includes new Client Contracts upon execution, even if the license start date and related revenue recognition occur later.
AddedMD&A
For Client Contracts where fees are linked to an investment product’s assets or trading volume or fees (referred to as “Asset-based Fees”), the Run Rate calculation is based on:
AddedMD&A
•For exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”): assets under management as of the last trading day of the period;
AddedMD&A
•For non-ETF products: the most recent client-reported assets under management; and
AddedMD&A
•For listed futures and options contracts: the most recent quarterly volumes and/or reported exchange fees.
AddedMD&A
Run Rate excludes fees associated with one-time or other non-recurring transactions.
AddedMD&A
We remove from Run Rate the annualized fee value associated with products or services under any Client Contracts when (i) we have received a notice of termination, reduction in fees, non-renewal or other clear indication that the client does not intend to continue its subscription at then current fees; and (ii) management has determined that such notice or indication reflects the client’s final decision to terminate, not renew or renew at a lower fee the applicable products or services, even if such termination or non-renewal is not yet effective (each such event, a “Subscription Cancellation”).
AddedMD&A
In general, when a client reduces the fees paid to MSCI associated with a reduction in the number of products or services to which it subscribes within a segment, or a switch between products or services within a segment, unless the client switches to a product or service that management considers a replacement, such reduction or switch is treated as a Subscription Cancellation, including for purposes of calculating MSCI’s Retention Rate (as detailed below). In the cases where the client switches products or services to a replacement service, only the net decrease, if any, is reported as a cancellation.