MSCI has launched PACS, a proprietary asset classification framework designed to bring order, comparability and consistency to private markets.

Covering a wide array of private assets – including private companies, real estate and infrastructure – PACS provides granular classifications that can be used to benchmark, analyze and communicate portfolio strategies and performance across the investment lifecycle.

According to MSCI, private assets have been growing rapidly over the past few years, fuelled by institutional allocations and increasing flows from private wealth. Yet the industry remains constrained by a lack of transparency, with no common system to effectively classify exposures, measure performance, or communicate strategies.

Against this background, PACS aims to serve as a global taxonomy for private assets. It builds on MSCI’s decades of leadership in providing standards and tools to categorize and compare public companies around the world. These include the Global Industry Classification Standard ( GICS ), which MSCI developed jointly with S&P Dow Jones Indices.

Delivered as an AI-powered managed data service, PACS applies consistent sector tagging at scale, providing the private-markets industry a strong foundation for transparency and comparability.

“Private markets are at an inflection point, with increasing prominence in the global financial ecosystem,” says Luke Flemmer, head of private assets at MSCI. “With PACS, MSCI is introducing the infrastructure that will define how private assets are identified, compared, and analyzed globally for years to come.”

The launch of PACS coincides with the release of the MSCI private assets team’s analysis of private market performance in the second quarter of 2025.

Among other findings, the report reveals that:

• Private-capital returns in Q2 were the strongest since 2021;
• Total dry powder across private markets is down roughly 8% since its peak in Q1 2024, falling 6% in private equity and 17% in real assets; and
• Distressed performance within credit is lagging, raising concerns that stress could climb up the capital structure to senior and mezzanine. This could be an early warning sign of strain on broader markets.