Investing in international markets

If you’re looking for investment opportunities outside the UK, investing in international markets could offer a number of benefits including greater diversification and gaining access to sectors that may be under-represented in the UK.

There are a number of different ways to invest in international markets. Each offer benefits but also come with their own risks.

The value of investments can fall as well as rise so you may not get back what you invest. On this page you’ll find information about Smart Investor and tips on how to get started. This is not tailored financial advice so if you’re not sure about investing, seek independent advice.

International trading

Although we don’t currently offer the capability to buy companies listed outside the UK, we are working on bringing this to Smart Investor early 2022.

International trading will give you direct access to individual companies listed on stock exchanges outside of the UK.

We’ll let you know when this is available.

What markets will be available?

We’ll be offering access to 11 different exchanges, which means you’ll be able to buy and sell shares in companies listed on these exchanges via Smart Investor.

Fees

International trading attracts different fees and may have additional costs depending on the market being traded. You can see a full list of costs and charges for international shares and ETFs on our fees page. It is important to read about and understand fees before you start investing.

View our fees

Funds

Funds enable you to invest in shares and bonds from a wide range of companies. When you invest in a fund, your and other investors’ money is pooled together. A fund manager then buys, holds and sells investments on your behalf.

A UK fund is likely to hold a wide number of stocks from a broad set of different British industry sectors.

Global funds can invest in companies in any country, giving you exposure to regions such as Asia, America and Latin America as well as markets closer to home in Europe.

By investing further afield you can gain exposure to more markets that can help provide a better balance of sectors and industries further helping with diversification.

For example, most of the biggest technology companies have their headquarters in the US, whilst Japan is home to many companies at the forefront of high-tech manufacturing. Such sectors tend to be less prominent in the UK.

However, you may already have exposure to international companies through UK funds you invest in. That’s because many of the companies listed on the FTSE 100 index are large, multinational businesses that may generate a large proportion of their sales abroad.

Read more on this in Four reasons to consider going global

Please note, the charges for all our funds (excluding ETFs) will remain unchanged; you can view these within the “Customer and transaction fees” tab on the Fees page.