General information
We use the S&P sectors to sort the companies into 11 different sectors. These sectors are known as the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS). The GICS was created in 1999 by Standard & Poor’s (S&P) and Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI). It is used by the majority of the professional investment management community. More than 95% of the world’s listed market capitalization has been classified by GICS.
The GICS sorts companies into sectors based on their primary business activity. Multiple factors are considered, such as a company’s main source of revenue, earnings analysis and market perception. The GICS uses a refined system to sort companies into 11 sectors. These are further divided into 24 industry groups, then into 68 industries, and finally into 157 sub-industries. For the purpose of the database, we only use the 11 fundamental sectors.
Sector - Financials
The financial sector consists of many types of companies, including all companies involved in finance, investing, customer finance, insurance and the movement or storage of money. It includes both international and local banks, credit card companies, credit unions, insurance companies and providers of all financial services.
Examples of banks in this sector are the Bank of America Corp, JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Goldman Sachs. Other big names in this sector include American Express and BlackRock.
