Msci : David Zhang Joins MSCI as Head of Securitized Products Research »

New York - January 17, 2017 - MSCI Inc. (NYSE: MSCI) announced today that David Zhang has joined the firm as head of securitized products research, a newly created role.

Mr. Zhang, who previously headed modeling of securitized products at Credit Suisse, will oversee MSCI's development of models that help traders, portfolio managers and other institutional investors analyze risk and return for securitized products.

"David Zhang is among the top fixed income modelers in the financial industry," said Remy Briand, MSCI's Global Head of Research. "We are thrilled to welcome him to MSCI."

In 11 years at Credit Suisse, Mr. Zhang designed models for measuring risk to mortgages from factors such as prepayment, volatility, home price appreciation and credit risk transfer. He also helped develop analytics used by financial institutions worldwide for assessing capital at risk, pre-provision net revenue, risk-based profit and loss, value-at-risk and other measures of risk.

At MSCI, Mr. Zhang joins a team of 40 researchers and specialists that has decades of experience in fixed income. Recent additions include Misha Shefter, who previously headed analytics modeling at Barclays Portfolio & Index Analysis Tools (POINT), and, in technology, Nooshin Komaee, who previously headed analytics for JPMorgan's BondStudio.

MSCI's integrated risk and performance analytics with global, multi-asset class coverage for public and private asset portfolios has been widely adopted by the world's leading institutional investors, who use it to better understand sources of return and analyze risks across their portfolios.

"We continue to strengthen our fixed income analytics as institutional investors are turning increasingly to MSCI to model the most complex fixed income instruments and pursue their strategies," said Peter Zangari, MSCI's Head of Analytics. "David's modeling abilities reinforce and extend those capabilities."

Before joining Credit Suisse, Mr. Zhang served for seven years as senior research director for rates and mortgage-backed security modeling at Freddie Mac. He holds leadership positions in such industry organizations as the Professional Risk Management International Association and the Global Chinese Real Estate Congress.

Mr. Zhang holds a doctorate in geophysics from Princeton and a bachelor's degree in physics from Fudan University.

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For more than 40 years, MSCI's research-based indexes and analytics have helped the world's leading investors build and manage better portfolios. Clients rely on our offerings for deeper insights into the drivers of performance and risk in their portfolios, broad asset class coverage and innovative research. Our line of products and services includes indexes, analytical models, data, real estate benchmarks and ESG research.

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Stephen Davidson + 1 212.981.1090 stephen.davidson@msci.com

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