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Depositary Receipts and Cross-Border Shares

ADR, ADS, global registered share, and cross-border equity terms used when companies trade outside their home market.

Depositary Receipts and Cross-Border Shares terms explain depositary receipts, depositary shares, depositary banks, global registered shares, and ticker-symbol conventions for cross-border equity exposure.

Use this branch when a stock trades through a receipt, bank program, foreign listing, currency conversion, or cross-border settlement structure rather than only as the local ordinary share.

Key Terms in This Branch

TermUse it for
ADRADR, ADS, depositary receipt, depositary bank, global registered share, or cross-border stock-symbol terms.
American Depositary Receipt (ADR)ADR, ADS, depositary receipt, depositary bank, global registered share, or cross-border stock-symbol terms.
American Depositary Share (ADS)ADR, ADS, depositary receipt, depositary bank, global registered share, or cross-border stock-symbol terms.
Depositary BankADR, ADS, depositary receipt, depositary bank, global registered share, or cross-border stock-symbol terms.
Depositary ReceiptADR, ADS, depositary receipt, depositary bank, global registered share, or cross-border stock-symbol terms.
Global Registered Share (GRS)Cross-border share structure and settlement terms.
Y in Stock SymbolsTicker-symbol convention terms for foreign ordinary shares and ADR-related listings.

What to Check

Check the receipt ratio, underlying ordinary share, depositary bank, home market, currency, fees, voting rights, dividend conversion, tax withholding, liquidity, and whether the receipt is sponsored.

Common Mistakes

  • Assuming a receipt is identical to the local ordinary share.
  • Ignoring currency conversion, depositary fees, tax withholding, and local-market liquidity.
  • Comparing ADR prices without checking the share ratio.
  • Treating ticker suffixes as enough evidence for ownership rights.

This page is educational and does not recommend a specific stock, fund, tax treatment, or account choice.

In this section

Choose a subsection first. Deeper term pages live inside each subsection, which keeps large topic hubs readable.

ADR

American Depositary Receipt (ADR) is a negotiable certificate issued by a U.S. bank representing a specified number of shares in a foreign stock traded on a U.S. exchange.

American Depositary Receipt

American depositary receipts are U.S.-traded certificates that represent foreign company shares and make cross-border equity exposure easier for U.S. investors.

American Depositary Share

American depositary shares are the underlying U.S.-dollar shares represented by ADRs and used to trade foreign companies in U.S. markets.

Depositary Bank

A depositary bank issues and administers depositary receipts, holds underlying foreign shares, and handles investor-facing services for cross-border listings.

Depositary Receipt

Depositary Receipts let investors hold foreign-company shares through domestic securities and trade them in local markets.

Global Registered Share (GRS)

A global registered share is a single class of company stock designed to trade across markets while remaining registered on one global shareholder record.

Y in Stock Symbols

In the realm of stock markets, the letter 'Y' in a stock symbol indicates that the security is an American Depositary Receipt (ADR).

Revised on Sunday, June 21, 2026