Frontier Markets - Terminology

Terminology

The term began use when the IFC Emerging Markets Database (EMDB), led by Farida Khambata, began publishing data on smaller markets in 1992. Khambata coined the term “Frontier Markets” for this set of indices. Standard and Poor's bought EMDB from IFC in 1999 and in October 2007, S&P launched the first investable index, the Select Frontier Index (30 of the largest companies from 11 countries) and the Extended Frontier Index (150 companies from 27 countries0. Subsequently, MSCI Barra began a rival frontier market index, and in early 2008, Deutsche Bank launched the first frontier market exchange-traded fund, on the London Stock Exchange. Frontier markets are a sub-set of emerging markets, which have market capitalizations that are small and/or low annual turnover and/or market restrictions unsuitable for inclusion in the larger EM indexes but nonetheless "demonstrate a relative openness to and accessibility for foreign investors" and are not under "extreme economic and political instability." Members could be considered to fall roughly into three groups: • Small countries of relatively high development level (such as Estonia) that are too small to be considered emerging markets, • Countries with investment restrictions that have begun to loosen as of the mid 2000s (such as the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council) • Countries at a lower development level than the existing “mainstream” emerging markets (such as Kenya or Vietnam).