Morgan Stanley Capital International's (MSCI) indices are picking up steam, according to Reuters.

MSCI has approximately $40 billion in assets benchmarked to its indices, Reuters reported on Friday. That's still a far cry from Russell Investment Group's $1.5 trillion in assets, not to mention the $1 trillion in assets tied to the S&P 500 alone.

Most of MSCI's assets come from Vanguard, who dropped its ties with S&P for six funds (and with the Russell Investment Group for one fund) last year in favor of MSCI's indices. At that time, Vanguard said the change was not related to a fight between the fund firm and S&P over Vanguard's attempt to use S&P indices for its VIPERs under the same contract as its indexed mutual funds. Their official line was that the change to MSCI would result in efficiencies and savings.

Vanguard most recently introduced four of its exchange-traded fund-like VIPERS in September. All four were tied to MSCI or Morgan Stanley indices. 

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