State Street has launched a private equity index, comprised of data including more than 1,300 private equity partnerships with a total fund size in excess of US$1.1 trillion.

The index will allow private equity investors to evaluate their performance against their peers across a broad and representative sample of investments.

Unlike other indices, the company says the State Street Private Equity Index does not rely on voluntary reporting of cash flows from general partners in order to calculate returns and as a result, the index provides an accurate representation of private equity holdings across all funds, without any reporting bias.

“The industry has been seeking a more robust source of comparative information for private equity performance and more importantly, peer group analysis, says senior vice-president William Pryor. “Private equity investors now have a benchmark as well as an additional layer of transparency to analyze their private equity holdings.”

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