The US has the most mature and active capital markets structure in the world. This is no big surprise, of course, but there are a lot of established markets elsewhere in the world. We know the whole manufacturing base for the world seems to have shifted to China, but their capital markets are relatively young. In the Far East, Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore all have more established and more actively traded markets than China in terms of their capital markets.
Not only that, each stock exchange has its own rules and each nation has its own rules. For example, if you own stock from one the countries I have listed so far, do you know which country doesn’t allow for shares of its companies to leave the country? Hint: It’s an island nation. Not much of a hint since Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore are all island nations right?
These rules that place limitations on movement or transfer of stock are known as restrictions. Some restrictions are not an issue in a securities loan and others are.
Stu
