State Street Corp. has announced the launch of the State Street Private Equity Index.

The index is based on the latest quarterly statistics from State Street Investment Analytics’ Private Edge Group. Its data includes 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 State Street Private Equity Index does not rely on voluntary reporting of cash flows from general partners in order to calculate returns. As a result, State Street says it 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,” stated William Pryor, senior vp. “Private equity investors now have a benchmark as well as an additional layer of transparency to analyze their private equity holdings.”

“The industry has long awaited a third party private equity index based on consistent and reliable data,” said Chris Ailman, chief information officer of CalSTRS. “State Street’s index will be a tremendous asset in evaluating our holdings which will provide us the information necessary to make strategic business decisions.”