US Senator Marco Rubio queries MSCI over inclusion of Chinese shares in major benchmark
- Part of a broader push by Rubio and other Washington lawmakers to crack down on Chinese companies operating in the US equities markets
US Senator Marco Rubio has written to the chief executive of global index provider MSCI Inc seeking information on why the company has included certain Chinese stocks in its widely tracked emerging market index, his office said on Thursday.
The letter forms part of a broader push by Rubio and other Washington lawmakers to crack down on Chinese companies operating in the US equities markets amid a broader trade war with China. US investors are exposed to Chinese companies if they are listed in the United States or included in major benchmarks.
“We can no longer allow China’s authoritarian government to reap the rewards of American and international capital markets while Chinese companies avoid financial disclosure and basic transparency, and place US investors and pensioners at risk,” Rubio told MSCI’s chairman and chief executive Henry Fernandez in the letter dated June 12.
A spokeswoman for MSCI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In 2017 MSCI said it would for the first time include stocks listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen in its global emerging market benchmark, a move that will ultimately bring billions of global investment dollars into the mainland Chinese stock markets.
