Tag: peer group benchmarking

The GICS is changing—will it affect your company?

Here’s some news (thanks to compensationstandards.com and Compensia): the structure of the GICS code is changing.  “Who cares?” you say. Yep, that’s what I said when I first heard about these changes.  (Well, that’s what I said once I figured out that the “Global Industry Classification Standard” (GICS) code is not the same thing as the “Standard Industrial Classification” (SIC) code, a four-digit classification system developed in the 1930s that the SEC uses to classify companies; the SEC requires each company to identify its primary SIC code on the facing page of registration statements. No, SIC codes are not changing.)  However, it turns out that the GICS code, a 10-digit classification system developed by MSCI and S&P for use by the global financial community, is employed not only for creating financial indices, but is also critical to the development by proxy advisor ISS of its compensation peer groups and other compensation-related analyses. So, GICS codes matter: for those companies affected, the structural changes could have a significant impact on assessments by ISS of their executive compensation programs.  The changes will be effective on September 28, 2018.