MSCI (formerly Morgan Stanley Capital International but divested in 2007 and now independent) and S&P are the leading equity indices and they have become very critical to market weightings for global equities and the intellectual capital and property of both are much deeper and more complex that most realize given the increase in ETFs (exchange traded funds), passive investing and market allocation based on their views of market capitalization, market type or classification and criteria for their weighting and classification.