U.S. Investors Have Access to Only 10 Percent of Global Stocks, According to Broadridge Report

LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., Jan. 31, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. investors have access to only 10 percent of stocks that are internationally traded according to the latest report published by Broadridge Financial Solutions (NYSE: BR), Global Investing: Considerations for Building an End-to-End Solution.  The report cites that 90 percent of U.S. investable assets are not invested in international markets where growth over the past 10 years has been the strongest.  Financial institutions can capitalize on outperforming international markets by offering their clients access to a broader array of investment opportunities beyond the U.S. market to foreign and emerging economies.

"Offering access to direct global investing provides a significant growth opportunity for financial institutions," said Joseph Barra, President, International Securities Processing and Global Outsourcing, Broadridge.  "With emerging markets anticipated to grow faster than developed economies over the next five years, financial institutions from brokerage firms to wealth management funds have a time-sensitive window of opportunity to enhance their technology and operations to create global investing platforms."

To date, investors have utilized American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) on U.S. stock indexes and more recently Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) to gain access to global markets.  But the choice of ADRs is usually limited to large cap companies in more developed countries.  Of the approximately 50,000 stocks available for purchase in world markets, fewer than 1 in 10 are traded on U.S. exchanges. 

This gap provides an opportunity for financial institutions to meet the increasing demand for ownership of foreign securities, particularly among active investors and high net worth individuals.  

"Investment opportunities are shifting to the rapidly growing markets in emerging and developing countries and investors looking to capitalize on this growth require direct access for better returns," added Mr. Barra.  "Our clients are continuing to look for differentiating, cost effective solutions to grow their businesses, and Broadridge provides financial institutions an end-to-end technology and outsourcing solution to access these foreign investments, giving them a significant edge." 

For a copy of Global Investing: Considerations for Building an End-to-End Solution, please visit: www.broadridge.com/BPO.

About Broadridge

Broadridge is a technology services company focused on global capital markets. Broadridge is the market leader enabling secure and accurate processing of information for communications and securities transactions among issuers, investors and financial intermediaries. Broadridge builds the infrastructure that underpins proxy services for over 90% of public companies and mutual funds in North America; processes more than $4 trillion in fixed income and equity trades per day; and saves companies billions annually through its technology solutions.

For more information about Broadridge, please visit www.broadridge.com.

SOURCE Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc.