The Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS) is an
industry taxonomy
Industry classification or industry taxonomy is a type of economic taxonomy that classifies companies, organizations and traders into industrial groupings based on similar production processes, similar products, or similar behavior in financial m ...
developed in 1999 by
MSCI and
Standard & Poor's
S&P Global Ratings (previously Standard & Poor's and informally known as S&P) is an American credit rating agency (CRA) and a division of S&P Global that publishes financial research and analysis on stocks, bonds, and commodities. S&P is con ...
(S&P) for use by the global financial community. The GICS structure consists of 11 sectors, 24 industry groups, 69 industries and 158 sub-industries
into which S&P has categorized all major
public companies. The system is similar to ICB (
Industry Classification Benchmark), a classification structure maintained by FTSE Group.
GICS is used as a basis for S&P and
MSCI financial market indexes in which each company is assigned to a sub-industry, and to an industry, industry group, and sector, by its principal business activity. "GICS" is a
registered trademark of
McGraw Hill Financial
S&P Global Inc. (prior to April 2016 McGraw Hill Financial, Inc., and prior to 2013 The McGraw–Hill Companies, Inc.) is an American publicly traded corporation headquartered in Manhattan, New York City. Its primary areas of business are financi ...
and MSCI Inc.
Classification
The classification is as follows:
Revisions
The classification standard is regularly updated by S&P Dow Jones Indices and MSCI. Numerous changes over the years have resulted in the addition, deletion, or redefinition of various sub-industries, industries, or industry groups. Since 1999, there have been two revisions at the sector level:
*In 2016, the real estate industry group (with the exception of mortgage
REITs) was moved out of the financials sector to a newly created real estate sector.
*In 2018, the telecommunication services sector was renamed communication services. The sector was expanded to include media and entertainment companies previously in the consumer discretionary sector, as well as interactive media and services companies from the information technology sector.
See also
*
Industry Classification Benchmark
*
International Standard Industrial Classification
*
North American Industry Classification System
*
Standard Industrial Classification
*
Thomson Reuters Business Classification
References
{{reflist
Industry classifications
Financial markets