Morgan Stanley Capital International has found a replacement for John Fildes, who departed Hong Kong last autumn to take a position in Morgan Stanley Dean Witters e-commerce group in Europe. And just in time, because the new MSCI director, Tim Kay, will face renewed pressure from rival FTSE, which will announce later this week the appointment of Michael Lim to head its Hong Kong office.
In the game of index vending, MSCI has a clear lead in the Asia Pacific region. Several index fund managers and consultants say the FTSE indices are often better FTSE has been well ahead of MSCI in adjusting its indices for free floats, for example but never...