The Refinitiv Business Classification

TRBC is a market-based classification scheme, similar to the GICS and ICB systems. These classify companies on the basis of degree of impact on markets, rather than establishment-based classification systems such as the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).

TRBC is used primarily in the Financial Investment and Advisory space, where investors identify and select groups of comparable companies and look at trends. More specifically, this could be Investment Managers allocating funds and benchmarking their portfolios; Investment Bankers highlighting acquisition targets and opportunities for financial restructuring, or more generally corporates performing competitive analysis of their peers in the marketplace.

TRBC covers over 72,000 public companies in 130 countries and provides a classification history going back to 1999.[4]

Four versions of the classification scheme have been published: RBSS 2004, TRBC 2008, TRBC 2012 and TRBC 2020. The first two versions had four levels: Economic sectors, Business sectors, Industry groups, and Industries. The third version added a fifth level, Activities.[5]

The TRBC classification scheme has a five-level hierarchical structure:

• 13 Economic sectors
• 33 Business sectors
• 62 Industry groups
• 154 Industries
• 898 Activities[4]

The TRBC classification scheme is shown below.[6]

Note that the acronym NEC stands for "not elsewhere classified". The use of this acronym, with the same meaning, is common in classification schemes, for example the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) uses it.

• Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS)
• Industry Classification Benchmark (ICB)
• North American Industry Classification System (NAICS)
• Standard Industrial Classification (SIC)
• Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community (NACE)
• Industry classification

• Thomson Reuters Business Classification
• Thomson Reuters Business Classification in Excel