International equity investment
International equities are within your reach: thousands of equities around the world.More options for diversifying investments
It’s worth looking beyond Finland! International markets enable geographical and sector-specific diversification of investments. You can pick from thousands of equities in up to 14 trading venues, and over 850 ETFs.
Cost-competitive
Trade in foreign equities at low cost, for trading fees starting from 0.17% or a minimum of €8. The more you trade, the lower your trading fees. In addition, as an owner-customer you can invest at lower cost than other investors.
Convenient
Through OP-mobile and the op.fi service, you can trade in foreign equities in the same, familiar way as for Finnish equities. Currency exchange is automatic if you trade in non-euro equities. The currency exchange charge is 0.3 per cent.
Invest in international equities as easily as in Finnish equities
The Nasdaq Helsinki represents under 1 per cent of world equity markets. By investing internationally, you can expand your investment options, spread risk and ensure steady returns through diversification. You can buy stocks in a range of familiar foreign companies outside the Nasdaq Helsinki, whose products you use in everyday life. International markets offer a wide range of ETFs.
In practice, the requirements for engaging in international equity trading are the same as for the Finnish market: if you are already trading in Finnish equities, you can immediately start trading in international equities too. As usual, you will need a QI document if you want to invest in the USA.
When trading in non-euro equities, you must take currency exchange fees into account. You will not need to exchange the currency yourself, this will be done automatically. The currency exchange fee is 0.30 per cent of the transaction price. This is calculated with the average rate used by OP Corporate Bank, which is updated four times a day.
Analyses of foreign equities in Finnish
To help you pick companies, you’ll get equity analyses in Finnish, covering foreign companies. You can access analyses easily via OP-mobile and the op.fi service.
As our equity investor client, you can read free-of-charge equity analyses of one hundred foreign listed companies, such as Tesla, Apple, Microsoft, JPMorgan, McDonald’s, BMW, Adidas, Volvo and L’Oréal. Slightly over half of these come from the USA. The rest are from Europe or elsewhere. The analyses are produced by our partner, Kepler Cheuvreux.
What should you take into account when investing internationally?
When trading in international equities, please note the following:
- Transaction tax, if any, and the trading fee differing from trading in Finland.
- Tax practices and the currency risk when investing outside the euro area
- A stock exchange might require the use of round lots (orders of certain size)
- Order lengths might differ from those in Finland. Each stock exchange may have its own particularities
- For the USA, however, additional documents may be required to comply with Qualified Intermediary (QI) requirements. If you cannot trade in the US stock market, ask your OP cooperative bank to arrange QI documentation.
In international equity investment, it is also worth noting that different markets have their own fees, and possibly also transaction taxes. For example, France levies a 0.30 per cent transaction tax on the purchase of equities in the biggest French companies. A financial transaction tax of 0.20 per cent is collected on purchases of equities in Spanish companies. The Spanish government collects this tax on any purchases of equities issued by companies whose market cap exceeds a billion euros.
Stock investment services are provided by OP cooperative bank. Please note that investment always involves risks. The value of investments can rise and fall, and an investor can lose part or all of the money they invest.