With the GICS user population rising steadily since its launch in 1999, the availability of GICS is now expanded to include the more than 250,000 Bloomberg users worldwide.

"This agreement brings the benefits of a powerfully flexible investment analysis tool to Bloomberg users," says Mitch Abeyta, Managing Director for Standard & Poor's. "At the same time, it helps build the already established and growing presence of GICS within the global investment community."

Rabbe Ekholm, Managing Director at MSCI Barra added that "through the BLOOMBERG PROFESSIONAL service, MSCI Barra and Standard & Poor's offer thousands of investment professionals direct access to the GICS, enabling rapid and integrated sector and security level analysis based on a recognized industry standard."

A recognized industry standard, the GICS methodology was developed by Standard & Poor's and MSCI Barra in 1999 to provide a reliable, comprehensive and continually updated classification system. GICS Direct, the subscriber-based product, is now used by 90 percent of both the leading buy-side and sell-side organizations. In addition to investment companies and broker- dealers, GICS is used by many of the industry's leading research firms. More than 33,500 active companies and some 37,500 securities are classified by sector, industry group, industry and sub-industry, enabling users to conduct qualitative and quantitative analyses such as return attribution, asset allocation, profitability trends, sector-specific exposure and peer comparisons. Each company is classified in one of 10 sectors, 24 industry groups, 64 industries and 139 GICS sub-industries.

GICS is available for individual use on all BLOOMBERG PROFESSIONAL service desktops. Should a company wish to use or distribute GICS beyond the desktop, a license from Standard & Poor's or MSCI Barra is available.