Industry Classification Benchmark (ICB)

Note: FTSE Russell has extended the schedule for all FTSE Russell indexes migrating to the newly-enhanced ICB structure. Updated timelines can be found near the bottom of this page.
 

Industry Classification Benchmark (ICB) is a globally utilized standard for the categorization and comparison of companies by industry and sector. It is the official sector classification used across FTSE Russell indexes for analysis, attribution and performance measurement.

ICB is widely adopted by global institutional clients and has many application use cases:

Asset managers
Sector exposure analysis, strategy execution and attribution reporting.

Data providers
A reference data map allowing systems to categorize, manage and follow companies by industry.

Exchanges
Used by stock exchanges globally to categorize listed companies, including London Stock Exchange, Euronext, NASDAQ OMX, Johannesburg Stock Exchange, SIX Swiss Exchange, Borsa Italiana, Athens Exchange, Cyprus Stock Exchange, and Boursa Kuwait.

Clients chose ICB as their sector classification data provider for its:

Inclusive structural development process	ICB is supported by an independent external advisory committee that comprises of top industry sector market practitioners. It leverages the FTSE Russell Governance process, capturing collective perspectives and insights from industry experts around the world.
Comprehensive and relevant taxonomy	Its four-tier structure offers a robust system for comparing and analyzing like-organizations. 11 Industries 20 Supersectors 45 Sectors 173 Subsectors
Unbiased approach to company research	Companies are allocated to subsectors based on a transparent research process to determine the nature of its business, which includes assessment of revenue source data and other publicly available information. Understand exactly how and why companies are allocated in the Ground Rules Challenge assigned company classification through a publicly available form

 

ICB policies, processes and structure have been enhanced as of July 1, 2019

• ICB Ground Rules as of July 1, 2019
• ICB Ground Rules (Legacy)
• ICB Challenges and Appeals as of July 1, 2019
• ICB Classification Data Form as of July 1, 2019
• ICB Product Overview
• Research Paper: ICB reclassification: expanded and improved
• ICB Structure & Definitions (Legacy)

The ICB taxonomy overview is available in seven languages: Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish.  Please contact us to request a translated version.
 

FTSE Russell indexes 2020-2021 ICB indexes migration

• FTSE Russell indexes  ICB migration FAQs