Welcome to another episode of Net Interest Extra, with me, Marc Rubinstein, where we explore the world of finance by speaking to experts in the field.
This week, I’m joined by Kunal Kapoor, CEO of Morningstar. Kunal has spent his entire career at the firm, starting as a data analyst and working his way up to lead one of the key information providers in global finance. Morningstar began as the “system of record” for the mutual fund industry, known for its star ratings, but today it’s a much broader platform spanning credit ratings, indexing, private-market intelligence through PitchBook, and wealth technology.
I’ve written recently about how AI could reshape the financial data industry — potentially unbundling traditional terminals and shifting the competitive focus towards proprietary data and embedded workflows. That makes Kunal an especially interesting person to speak with. Morningstar sits right at the centre of those changes as a firm built on data, research and investor trust.
We cover a lot of ground in this conversation – from Morningstar’s ratings franchise and the push for transparency in private markets to the economics of financial data and what AI might mean for the future of market intelligence. So it’s a pleasure to have Kunal on the show.
We discuss:
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Morningstar’s evolution from mutual funds to financial data platform [02:12]
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Star ratings, Medalist ratings, and the continuing role of human analysts [07:05]
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How AI is changing financial information interfaces [10:18]
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The value in financial information: proprietary data, research and IP [11:06]
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Morningstar’s move into private markets and semi-liquid funds [18:30]
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Private company research and venture valuations [24:00]
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Competing with larger agencies in the ratings business [29:52]
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Morningstar’s push into indexing and the economics of the index business [35:26]
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Why Kunal rejects the idea that retail investors are “dumb money” — and what worries him instead [38:11]
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Crypto, risk-taking and what still matters most in financial data businesses [40:37]