This chapter provides an overview of developments in equity and corporate bond markets worldwide including in the global landscape of listed companies and in the use of public equity via initial and secondary public offerings. It also offers an overview of the ownership structure of listed companies and of equity segments that are dedicated to smaller companies, and provides trends in the use of corporate bonds in global capital markets.
OECD Corporate Governance Factbook 2025
Abstract
Market-based financing - defined as the funding raised by corporations through public equity and corporate bond markets - has grown significantly over the past few decades. By the end of 2023, its total size was equivalent to 116% of global GDP, compared to 71% for credit to non-financial corporations. Much of this growth has been driven by the expansion of corporate bond markets (Figure 1.1). By contrast, the amount of capital raised by non-financial companies through initial and secondary public equity offerings has declined over time as a share of GDP.
Following the dot-com bubble, public equity markets contracted in the early 2000s, limiting companies’ access to capital. Although stock markets began to recover in 2004, peaking in 2007, equity issuance has since trended downward as a share of GDP. Meanwhile, a prolonged period of low interest rates after the global financial crisis spurred a steady rise in corporate bond issuance by non-financial firms.
However, the sharp shift in monetary policy since 2021 has significantly affected companies’ ability to raise funds in both bond and equity markets. Since then, the total capital raised through public equity and corporate bonds has declined, both in nominal terms and relative to GDP.
Source: OECD Capital Market Series dataset, IMF, https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/NGDP_RPCH@WEO/OEMDC/ADVEC/WEOWORLD
Despite this decline in the use of public equity markets, they remain the largest asset class available to retail investors and provide them with an opportunity to share in corporate value creation. By the end of 2024, approximately 44 000 listed companies were listed worldwide, with a total market capitalisation of USD 125 trillion. The United States remained the largest market by capitalisation, accounting for half of the global total (Figure 1.2). Asia followed, with 27% of global market capitalisation and 58% of listed companies (OECD, 2025[1]). Europe had nearly 6 500 companies, accounting for 13% of global market capitalisation.
Note: The figure shows the market capitalisation and number of listed companies for the 44 152 listed companies in 98 economies, and the bubble size represents their share in global market capitalisation. Table 1.2 provides an overview of the total market capitalisation and number of listed companies across the 52 Factbook jurisdictions, including OECD, G20 and Financial Stability Board members. Table 1.3 provides a breakdown of the largest stock exchanges in each jurisdiction and their characteristics. See Annex 1.A for more detailed information.
Source: OECD Capital Market Series dataset, FactSet, Refinitiv, Bloomberg.
The declining number of companies listed on stock exchanges, which limits the number that can benefit from access to public equity markets, is a major concern in a number of developed economies. Since 2005, more than 35 000 companies have delisted from public stock markets globally (Figure 1.3). Approximately 12 000 companies delisted in Europe (about one-third of the total), 5 000 in the United States and 1 600 in Japan.
In both the United States and Europe, delistings have outpaced new listings, resulting in a net decline in the number of listed companies. The United States saw a net loss of listed companies in 18 out of the 20 years since 2005, while Europe experienced net losses in 12 years. Conversely, net listing has substantially increased in Asia, leading to a change in the global repartition of listed companies. Japan recorded positive net listings in 14 years out of the 20 since 2005. In China, fewer than 50 companies delisted per year on average, contributing to a significant net increase in the total number of listed companies.
Since the peak in listing activity of 2021, initial public offering (IPO) activity has weakened across most regions. The exception has been Asia (excluding China and Japan), where net listings have continued to rise and remained positive over 2022-24 (Panel F).
Source: OECD Capital Market Series dataset, FactSet, Refinitiv, Bloomberg.
1.1.1. Trends in initial public offerings
Equity markets offer companies access to the risk-willing, long-term capital they need to invest and innovate and ultimately contribute to economic growth. They also offer a continuous source of financing for companies after their initial listing. One way that equity markets contribute to the broader resilience of our economies is by providing financing in times of crisis. When bank lending contracts, equity markets continue offering capital – this was the case during the global financial crisis and the COVID-19 induced crisis. Equity markets are also the largest asset class available to households, offering them an opportunity to manage their savings and share in corporation value creation.
The public equity market landscape has undergone important changes in recent decades. One important development has been the increasing use of public equity markets by Asian companies. Between 1990 and 2001, European non-financial companies – mainly from the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Italy – played a leading role globally in terms of initial public offerings (IPOs), accounting for 40% of all capital raised, with 3 471 listings. Since then, European IPOs have declined both in absolute and relative terms. European non‑financial companies raised only 22% of the total equity capital raised via IPOs during the 2002‑13 period, dropping to 19% between 2014 and 2024 (Figure 1.4).
Note: Initial public offerings in this report are defined as those listing on the main market where the capital raised is greater than zero. Therefore, direct listings are not recorded as IPOs. See Annex 1.A for more detailed information.
Source: OECD Capital Market Series dataset, FactSet, Refinitiv, Bloomberg.
At the same time, Asian companies have significantly increased their participation in global equity markets, from raising 23% of global IPO proceeds during the 1990-2001 period to 48% in 2014‑24. Importantly, the capital raised by non‑financial companies in Asia has surpassed that of financial companies. The growth of Asian markets is mainly the result of a surge in Chinese IPOs which more than tripled between 1990‑01 and 2014‑24, a period during which they accounted for one‑third of the global proceeds. The Japanese market, after a decline in total IPO proceeds in 2002-13 compared to the 1990s, saw a 23% increase during 2014‑24 period, also contributing to the rise of Asian equity markets during the last decade. While the share of global capital raised through IPOs increased in China and Japan during the 2014-24 period, the share of the rest of Asia declined by 22%. The participation of Latin American companies in global capital markets has declined, with their amount of capital raised via IPOs contracting by 45% between 2002‑13 and 2014‑24.
The surge in IPOs of Asian companies has led to an increase in the share of Asian listed companies in all listed companies. At the beginning of 2025, 58% of the world’s listed companies were listed on Asian stock exchanges, together representing 27% of the market capitalisation of the world’s listed companies (OECD, 2025[1]).
The shift towards Asia has been even more pronounced with respect to the number of IPOs by non‑financial companies. Chinese non‑financial companies have been the world’s most frequent users of IPOs during the past decade, with about two and a half times as many IPOs as US companies (Figure 1.5). Other Asian markets - Hong Kong (China), India, Japan and Korea - also rank among the top ten IPO markets globally. Importantly, several emerging Asian markets such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, rank higher in terms of IPOs than most non-Asian advanced economies. Only one EU country - Sweden - is in the top ten.
Note: Companies are recorded by their domicile, not where they list. See Annex 1.A for more detailed information.
Source: OECD Capital Market Series dataset, FactSet, Refinitiv, Bloomberg.
1.1.2. Trends in secondary public offerings
Secondary public offerings (SPOs or follow-on offerings) allow companies that are already listed to continue raising equity capital on primary markets after their IPO. The proceeds from the SPO may be used for a variety of purposes, including to help fundamentally sound companies to bridge a temporary downturn in economic activity. In this regard, SPOs played an important role in providing the corporate sector with equity in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and during the COVID‑19 crisis.
The use of SPOs as a source of financing has surpassed that of IPOs since the 1990s. In 2020, non‑financial companies raised a record USD 772 billion via SPOs. The proceeds raised between 2014 and 2024 worldwide totalled USD 5.9 trillion, almost twice the amount raised between 1990 and 2001. All regions experienced an increase in the use of SPOs (Figure 1.6). Europe and the United States were the dominant regions in terms of capital raised via SPOs until 2014. Since 2015, China has led the use of SPOs. While the use of SPOs was marginal in China during the 1990s, Chinese companies raised USD 1.4 trillion in equity through SPOs between 2014 and 2024, which represents 23% of the total equity raised in the world through SPOs during that period.
Note: All public equity listings following an IPO, including the first-time listings on an exchange other than the primary exchange, are classified as an SPO. See Annex 1.A for more detailed information.
Source: OECD Capital Market Series dataset, FactSet, Refinitiv, Bloomberg.
The steady growth in SPOs worldwide has also changed the balance of funds raised via SPOs and IPOs. In the 1990s, the global amount of capital raised in SPOs was only 27% higher than the amount raised via initial public offerings (Panel B). That has changed since, and in 2014-24 the amount raised via SPOs was 2.5 times higher than the amount raised via IPOs. The picture varies between regions. For example, in the 1990s, China had SPO levels below that of IPOs, but since 2014 they more than doubled. Another example is Latin America where markets for secondary public offering were dynamic in the 1990s but have not expanded much since. While the United States and Europe have both experienced a decrease in IPOs since the early 2000s, secondary public offerings have remained strong. The increasing needs of already listed companies for capital to continue expanding partly explain the growth in SPOs. In addition, listed companies in these markets regularly acquire smaller non-listed companies, and these acquisitions can be financed through SPOs.
1.1.3. Equity markets for growth companies
While the focus of the Factbook has historically been on companies that issue equity on the regulated or main markets, this edition also looks at markets dedicated to smaller growth companies because of their growing importance. The analysis in this section is based on the findings of the report Equity Markets for Growth Companies (OECD, 2025[2]).
Equity markets for growth companies, also called alternative markets or SME markets, are becoming popular around the world. These segments normally refer to those platforms or segments established on or managed by stock exchanges which aim to provide access to equity financing to small and growth companies. In some countries, these markets are accessible to retail investors while in others they are only accessible to qualified investors.
Growth companies often face challenges when funding projects due to limited financial history, lack of collateral and unstable cash flows, which are typically prerequisites for bank loans. These markets intend to fill this gap by facilitating access to patient and risk‑willing capital.
At the end of 2023, 16 247 growth companies were listed in 59 jurisdictions worldwide1, with a total market capitalisation of USD 4 trillion (OECD, 2025[2]). While important in number, their market capitalisation is less than 4% of total market capitalisation. This suggests that these markets are listing much smaller companies. Asia leads by hosting 8 586 growth companies with a total market capitalisation of USD 3.3 trillion, accounting for over half of all listed growth companies and around 80% of their market capitalisation. This dynamic ecosystem for growth companies is in large part a result of the rapid development of equity markets for larger companies in the region, as the two are closely interconnected. China alone is home to over 2 000 growth companies, with a combined market capitalisation of USD 2.5 trillion. Meanwhile, Asia excluding China and Japan lists around 5 700 growth companies which collectively represent 18% of global growth market capitalisation (Figure 1.7).
Note: Differently from the analysis in the rest of the chapter, this section uses data at the end of 2023. The exercise of identifying growth market companies on each stock exchange website was done using the 2023 sample. The figure shows the regional distribution of 16 247 companies listed on growth markets in 59 jurisdictions. The bubble size represents the share of the market capitalisation in total global market capitalisation. LAC stands for Latin America and Caribbean. Over-the-counter companies are not included in the category of growth companies. See Annex 1.A for more detailed information.
Source: OECD Capital Market Series dataset, LSEG.
In comparison, growth markets in the United States and Europe are smaller in size. The growth market in the United States is home to 1 376 companies with a total market capitalisation of USD 339 billion, representing less than one-tenth of global growth company market capitalisation. These companies are mainly listed on the NASDAQ Capital Market and the NYSE MKT (formerly NYSE American). The growth market in the United States is significantly smaller than the main markets, which have a total market capitalisation of USD 51 trillion.
Europe hosts 3 414 small and growth companies with a total market capitalisation of USD 226 billion. The region has several key markets. One of the pioneering European markets catering to small and growth companies is AIM in the United Kingdom, currently listing 787 companies. Euronext offers two primary segments for growth companies: Euronext Growth, a second-tier market, and Euronext Access, a third-tier market. Both segments support growth companies’ access to equity financing across six markets, Belgium, France, Ireland, Italy, Norway and Portugal. In addition, Euronext Expand Oslo in Norway and Euronext Star Milan in Italy also provide dedicated platforms for growth companies. Collectively, Euronext’s growth segments host over 800 growth companies. Meanwhile, the First North Growth Market operating in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden collectively lists more than 500 growth companies.
In most markets, the majority of growth companies have a market capitalisation around or below USD 75 million (Figure 1.8). An outlier is China, with a median size of USD 600 million. Türkiye’s growth market also has large companies, with a median size of USD 106 million. In contrast, several markets, such as Australia, Denmark, Hong Kong (China), India and Sweden, have a median market capitalisation of USD 10 million or less. This shows that even very small companies in these jurisdictions have access to equity markets. It is also important to note that the size of companies varies significantly within markets (e.g. China, Germany and Türkiye). In most other jurisdictions, however, growth markets are primarily composed of smaller companies.
Note: The analysis only includes markets with over twenty listed growth companies. See Annex 1.A for more detailed information.
Source: OECD Capital Market Series dataset, LSEG.
Growth markets are particularly crucial in an era in which intangible technologies drive economic growth., whereas traditional lending models rely more on tangible assets as collateral. This is clear from the industry composition of listed growth companies. The industry breakdown shows that the technology, industrials and healthcare sectors dominate growth markets worldwide, together accounting for more than two-thirds of total market capitalisation (Figure 1.9). The technology sector alone accounts for nearly one-third of capitalisation and is the largest in Europe, China, Japan and the rest of Asia. The industrials sector also has a significant presence in growth markets, representing over one-fifth of market capitalisation in Europe, China and Latin America. The healthcare sector is among the top three sectors across most growth markets.
Note: The shares are calculated over market capitalisation. "Others" includes all industries not listed among the top three. Financial companies are excluded from the analysis. See Annex 1.A for more detailed information.
Source: OECD Capital Market Series dataset, LSEG.
Note: Differently from the analysis in the rest of the chapter, this section uses data at the end of 2023. The exercise of identifying growth market companies on each stock exchange website was done using the 2023 sample. The table compares jurisdictions that have a growth market with available public information at the end of 2023. Jurisdictions that have a growth market but that are not covered in the Factbook are included under the category “Other jurisdictions”.
Source: OECD (2025[2]), Equity Markets for Growth Companies, https://doi.org/10.1787/bbffd4f7-en.
1.1.4. Trends in corporate bond financing
While the means and processes that bondholders have to define the boundaries of corporate action and monitor corporate performance differ from those of shareholders, they still play an important role. This is particularly salient in times of financial distress. Like equity, bonds typically provide longer-term financing than traditional bank loans and serve as a useful source of capital for companies seeking to diversify their capital base.
Since the 2008 financial crisis, corporate bonds have become both an important source of financing for non-financial corporations and an important asset class for investors. The low cost of debt resulting from sustained periods of expansive monetary policy has incentivised more, and riskier, issuers to borrow, using both corporate bonds and other instruments. The share of non-financial corporate bonds has risen since 2007 from representing 24% of all bonds issued to a peak of 47% in 2017. Since then, it has decreased to 37% in 2024 (Figure 1.10). However, as shown in Figure 1.1, the amount of financing to non-financial corporations has surpassed that of public equity markets. Even during crisis episodes, corporate bond markets have supported the corporate sector. In 2020, at the onset of the COVID‑19 pandemic, non‑financial companies rushed to tap corporate bond markets, issuing a record USD 3.5 trillion. In 2021, total issuance declined to USD 2.8 trillion, and in 2022 and 2023, a tighter monetary policy environment increased the cost of debt, causing issuance to fall to a total of USD 1.8 trillion and USD 1.9 trillion respectively. The amount issued recovered in 2024 to USD 2.4 trillion as many central banks started easing the cost of debt (OECD, 2025[3]).
Annual corporate bond issuance almost doubled from an average of USD 1.5 trillion during the 2002‑13 period to USD 2.5 trillion during the 2014‑24 period (Figure 1.10). In many countries, the increasing use of corporate bonds has been supported by regulatory initiatives aimed at stimulating their use as a viable source of long-term funding for non‑financial companies. Except in the case of Japan, the figure shows that amounts issued have consistently increased since 1990. Importantly, while corporate bond issuances in China were negligible in the 1990s, since 2014 they have grown significantly. In Europe, issuances since 2014 have almost tripled compared to the amounts issued between 1990 and 2001. In the United States, more than double the amount of corporate bonds were issued by non-financial corporations in the 2014‑24 period compared to between 1990 and 2001.
An important characteristic of global bond markets is the dominance of US corporate bond issuers. US companies are the largest users of corporate bonds, accounting for 38% of total issuances between 2014 and 2024. Over the same period, Chinese and European corporate bond issuances accounted for 25% and 18% of global issuances respectively.
Note: See Annex 1.A for more detailed information.
Source: OECD Capital Market Series dataset, Refinitiv.
This surge in the use of corporate bond financing has further highlighted the role of corporate bonds in corporate governance. For example, covenants, which are clauses in a bond contract that are designed to protect bondholders against actions that issuers can take at their expense, may have a strong influence on the governance of issuer companies. Covenants may range from specifying the conditions for dividend payments to clauses that require issuers to meet certain disclosure requirements.
One important feature of global corporate bond markets has been the decline in credit quality since 1990 (Figure 1.11). This has been partly driven by the decline in overall corporate bond quality within the investment grade category. The share of BBB rated bonds, which is the lowest quality of bonds that are included in the investment grade category, increased from an average of 39% over the 2000-07 period to an average of 46% in the 2008-21 period. In 2021, 58% of all issuance in the investment grade category had the lowest rating BBB. However, with increasing cost of financing, the issuance of BBB declined during the last three years. In 2021, 35% of all non-financial corporate bond issuances was non‑investment grade. As a result of the tightening financing conditions in 2022, the share of non‑investment grade bonds dropped to 14%.
Note: See Annex 1.A for more detailed information.
Source: OECD Capital Market Series dataset, LSEG.
The global outstanding amount of non-financial corporate bonds reached a record level in 2021, amounting to USD 17.1 trillion in real terms, more than twice the 2008 amount. A similar pattern was observed in all regions. The outstanding amount of non-financial corporate bonds dropped to USD 16 trillion in 2022 as a result of the contraction in new issuances that year. Almost 46% of the outstanding amount of non-financial corporate bonds corresponds to US bonds, followed by European and Chinese bonds representing 18% and 17% of the total outstanding amount respectively. The outstanding amount of bonds issued by non-financial companies in Asia (excluding China and Japan) and Other advanced represented 6% and 5% of the total outstanding amount respectively. Other regions’ outstanding amounts represented less than 5% of the total in 2024 (Figure 1.12).
Note: See Annex 1.A for more detailed information.
Source: OECD Capital Market Series dataset, LSEG.
Equity markets are characterised by strong ownership concentration in listed companies and a wide variety of ownership structures around the world. Historically, however, most of the corporate governance debate has focused on situations with dispersed ownership, where the challenge of aligning the interests of shareholders and managers dominates. Recent developments have shifted ownership structures of listed companies towards concentrated ownership models.
The first factor contributing to this is the increasing importance of Asian companies in stock markets. Since Asian companies often have a controlling shareholder – either a corporation, family or the state – their growing presence in capital markets has increased the prevalence of controlled companies. The second factor impacting concentration at the company level is the rise of institutional investors. While assets under management by institutional investors have increased during the last two decades, many companies in advanced economies have left public equity markets. Therefore, a growing amount of funds flowing into a decreasing number of companies has increased ownership concentration at the company level. The third factor has been the partial privatisation of many state‑owned companies through stock market listings since the 1990s. In many cases, privatisation through stock market listings has not led to any change in control and today states have controlling stakes in a large number of listed companies, particularly in emerging Asian markets.
The results presented in Figure 1.13 build on firm-level ownership information from 46 086 listed companies in 98 different markets. Together, these companies represent 99% of global stock market capitalisation. Using ownership information for each company, investors were classified into the five following categories: private corporations, public sector, strategic individuals, institutional investors and other free‑float (De La Cruz, Medina and Tang, 2019[4]).
Note: The figure shows the overall ownership share by market capitalisation of the categories of owners for 46 086 listed companies in 98 economies for which there is firm-level ownership information. See Table 1.2 and Annex 1.A for more detailed information including by country.
Source: OECD Capital Market Series dataset, FactSet, Refinitiv, Bloomberg.
Today, the ownership structure of listed companies worldwide is characterised by the dominance of institutional investors. Institutional investors are the largest category of investors globally, with 47% of total equity holdings at the end of 2024 (Figure 1.13). Their dominant position globally is largely driven by their major importance in the largest market – the United States – where they hold 69% of the listed equity. This share is considerably lower in Asia excluding China and Japan (20%), China (9%), Latin America (20%) and Others (5%). Corporations are also major owners of public equity in some parts of the world, reflecting the prominent role of company group structures. This is the case in Asia excluding China and Japan, Japan, Latin America and Others. In Asia excluding China and Japan, their holdings account for 24% of total listed equity, while globally, this figure stands at 9%. The ownership share of the public sector is significantly higher in China and Others (over one-third of market capitalisation) compared to other regions. Strategic individuals are also important owners in Asia (excluding China and Japan), in China and in Latin America.
1.2.1. The prevalence of concentrated ownership
The degree of ownership concentration in an individual company is not only important for the relationship between owners and managers. It may also call for additional focus on the relationship between controlling owners and non-controlling owners, as the ownership structure in most markets is today characterised by a fairly high degree of concentration at the company level (Medina, de la Cruz and Tang, 2022[5]). In 44% of listed companies globally, the combined holding of the three largest shareholders is over 50% of the listed equity. Conversely, the largest 3 shareholders own less than 1% of the equity in only 0.7% of listed companies (Figure 1.14).
Note: The figures show the share of companies with different levels of ownership for the three largest shareholders at the company level. For example, globally, the three largest shareholders at the company level own over 50% of the equity in 44% of listed companies.
Source: OECD Capital Market Series dataset, FactSet, Refinitiv, Bloomberg.
The level of concentration differs significantly across markets. In the United States, for example, the three largest owners hold between 10% and 29% of the equity in more than half of the listed companies (53%) while their holdings exceed 50% in just 17% of companies. The pattern is similar in Japan and in Other advanced. In Asia (excluding China and Japan), China, Europe, Latin America and Others, the picture is somewhat reversed. The share of companies is increasing in the levels of concentration. In Asia excluding China and Japan, the three largest owners hold between 10% and 29% of the equity in 19% of the companies (China 17%) and over 50% in 51% of listed companies (China 42%). The pattern in Europe is similar with the three largest owners holding between 10% and 29% of the equity in 21% of the companies and over 50% in 53% of listed companies. Concentration levels are much higher in Latin America and Others where the three largest owners hold over 50% of the equity in 71% and 68% of the companies respectively. The distribution worldwide is largely influenced by the distribution in Asian companies, as they represent 58% of the world’s listed companies.
A closer look at ownership concentration at the company level in each market shows high levels of concentration. In 34 out of 51 jurisdictions, the three largest shareholders own on average more than 50% of the company’s equity capital. The markets with the lowest ownership concentration, measured as the combined holdings of the three largest shareholders, are Australia, Ireland, the United States, Finland and the United Kingdom, where the three largest shareholders nonetheless still own a significant average combined holding, ranging between 32% and 36% of the company’s equity capital. Moreover, in all these jurisdictions, the 20 largest shareholders own on average between 52% and 61% of the company’s capital (Figure 1.15).
Note: The figure shows ownership concentration at the company level for each market. It shows the average combined holdings of the 3 and 20 largest owners respectively across 51 out of the 52 jurisdictions covered by the Factbook. Costa Rica has been excluded since it has less than ten companies with ownership information. See Table 1.2 and Annex 1.A for more detailed information including by country.
Source: OECD Capital Market Series dataset, FactSet, Refinitiv, Bloomberg.
1.2.2. Supporting information
The table below provides an overview of the number of listed companies and the market capitalisation in each market (Table 1.2). The table includes, in each market, listed companies with available information for their ownership structure. It provides a comparison of ownership concentration across the Factbook’s 52 jurisdictions based on the percentage of companies where the three largest shareholders own at least 50% of the shares. In 34 of the jurisdictions, the three largest owners hold more than 50% of the equity capital in at least half of all listed companies. Table 1.3 shows detailed information about the largest stock exchanges, their legal and listing status.
Key: Ownership by investor category: IIs: Institutional investors; PS: Public Sector; SI: Strategic Individual; PC: Private Corporation; OFF: Other free float.
Note: The number of listed companies and the market capitalisation in each market correspond to those companies with available information for their ownership structure, therefore the numbers presented in this table may differ from the total number of listed companies. Moreover, the OECD methodology excludes from the number of listed companies investment funds, ETFs and real estate investment trusts (REITs). Companies that list more than one class of shares are considered as one company and only its primary listing is considered. Jurisdictions not covered in the Factbook are not shown in this table, however are used for global and regional calculations. See Annex 1.A for more detailed information.
Source: OECD Capital Market Series dataset, FactSet, LSEG, Bloomberg.
Key: “-” = information not applicable or not available. ( ) = holding company listing.
1. The stock exchanges of Chile, Colombia and Peru merged into a group called “Holding Bursátil Regional S.A” as part of a project of market integration (NUAM) in 2023. In 2023, most shares of the stock exchanges of Chile, Colombia and Peru were transferred to a single parent company “Holding Bursátil Regional S.A”. However, they continue to operate as three independent infrastructures within their respective jurisdictions, under the same holding company.
2. In China, the law (Law of the People’s Republic of China on Securities, Art. 96) provides that a stock exchange is a legal person performing self-regulatory governance which provides the premises and facilities for centralised trading of securities, organises and supervises such securities trading and that the establishment and dissolution of a stock exchange shall be subject to decision by the State Council.
3. In seven jurisdictions (Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden), the largest stock exchange is owned by NASDAQ Nordic Ltd (which is 100% owned by the NASDAQ Inc.).
4. In India, there are three nation-wide stock exchanges: NSE, BSE and Metropolitan Stock Exchange of India. Both NSE and BSE have been included in this table since NSE is largest in terms of volume of trading and BSE is largest in terms of number of entities listed on the stock exchange.
References
[4] De La Cruz, Medina and Tang (2019), Owners of the World’s Listed Companies, https://www.oecd.org/corporate/Owners-of-the-Worlds-Listed-Companies.htm.
[5] Medina, A., A. de la Cruz and Y. Tang (2022), “Corporate ownership and concentration”, OECD Corporate Governance Working Papers, No. 27, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/bc3adca3-en.
[1] OECD (2025), Asia Capital Markets Report 2025, OECD Capital Market Series, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/02172cdc-en.
[2] OECD (2025), Equity Markets for Growth Companies, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/bbffd4f7-en.
[3] OECD (2025), Global Debt Report 2025: Financing Growth in a Challenging Debt Market Environment, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/8ee42b13-en.
In this report, the category “Asia excl. China and Japan” includes all jurisdictions in the continent excluding China and Japan. “Latin America” includes jurisdictions both in Latin America and in the Caribbean. “Europe” includes all jurisdictions that are fully located in the region, including the United Kingdom and Switzerland but excluding the Russian Federation and Türkiye. “Other advanced” includes all jurisdictions that are classified as advanced economies in IMF’s World Economic Outlook Database but that are not represented in the other categories in the figure (e.g. Australia, Canada, and Israel). “Others” includes mostly jurisdictions that are classified as emerging market and developing economies in IMF’s World Economic Outlook Database but that are not represented in the other categories in the figure (e.g. Saudi Arabia and South Africa).
The information on the number of listed companies and their market capitalisation is based on LSEG Screener and the following criteria are used to clean the data:
security type classified as “units” and “trust” are excluded
for firms with multiple listings, only primary listings are kept
for firms with multiple observations but different countries of domicile, their true country of domicile is manually checked to remove the duplicates
firms trading on over-the-counter (OTC) markets and those listed on multilateral trading facilities (MTFs) or SME/growth markets are excluded. SME/growth markets included in the analysis are: Korea Exchange (KOSDAQ), New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Nasdaq Capital Market (NASDAQ)
special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) are excluded
investment funds are excluded
real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) are excluded.
The information on initial public offering (IPOs) and secondary public offerings (SPOs or follow-on offerings) presented in Chapter 1 is based on transaction and/or firm-level data gathered from several financial databases, such as LSEG (Screener, Datastream), FactSet and Bloomberg. Considerable resources have been committed to ensuring the consistency and quality of the dataset. Different data sources are checked against each other and, the information is also controlled against original sources, including regulator, stock exchange and company websites and financial statements.
The dataset includes information about all IPOs and SPOs by financial and non-financial companies. Initial public offerings in this report are defined as those listing on the main market where the capital raised is greater than zero. Therefore, direct listings are not recorded as an IPO in this database. All public equity listings following an IPO, including the first-time listings on an exchange other than the primary exchange, are classified as an SPO. If a company is listed on more than one exchange within 180 days, those transactions are consolidated under one IPO. The country breakdown is carried out based on the domicile of the issuer not on the stock exchange location. The database excludes the IPOs and SPOs by trusts, funds and special purpose acquisition companies.
The figures on equity growth markets are based on OECD calculations using company-level information from LSEG and the websites of stock exchanges. All data on equity growth markets refers to end of 2023. The identification of equity markets for growth companies is based on whether the regulatory authorities or the stock exchange governing the market segment designate it as being for growth companies and/or small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Using this classification of growth markets, companies are categorised as either listed on the main market or growth market. Where available, segment information from LSEG is used to determine the listing segment of each company. However, as LSEG data often only indicate the exchange on which a company is listed without specifying the segment, additional manual verification was conducted.
For the manual verification, information on each listed company was collected directly from stock exchange websites. Company identifiers, such as ISINs, are used to match the LSEG data with stock exchange information. Where company identifiers are missing, name matching is used to accurately assign each company to the correct market segment on the exchange.
The ownership figures for publicly listed companies are based on OECD calculations using firm-level information from the FactSet Ownership database. The data are complemented and verified using LSEG and Bloomberg. Data are collected at the end of 2024 in current USD, thus no inflation adjustment is needed. Market information for each company is collected from LSEG. The dataset includes the records of owners for 46 086 companies listed across 98 countries covering 99% of the world market capitalisation. For each of the countries/regions presented, the information corresponds to all listed companies in those countries/regions with available information.
The records of owners are collected for each company. Some companies have up to 5 000 records in their list of owners. Each record contains the name of the institution, the percentage of outstanding shares owned, the investor type classification, the origin country of the investor, the ultimate parent name, among other things.
The table below presents the five categories of owners defined and used in this report following De La Cruz, Medina and Tang (2019[4]). Different types of investors are grouped into these five categories of owners. In many cases, when the ultimate owner is identified as a government, a province or a city and the direct owner was not identified as such, ownership records are reclassified as public sector. For example, public pension funds that are regulated under public sector law are classified as public sector, and sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) are also included in that same category.
Data presented on corporate bond issues are based on OECD calculations using deal-level data obtained from LSEG on new issues of corporate bonds that are underwritten by an investment bank. The database provides detailed information for each corporate bond issue, including the identity, nationality and sector of the issuer; the type, interest rate structure, maturity date and rating category of the bond; and the amount of proceeds obtained from the issue and intended uses thereof.
Convertible bonds, deals that were registered but not consummated, preferred shares, sukuk bonds, bonds with an original maturity less than or equal to one year or an issue size less than USD 1 million are excluded from the dataset. Industry classifications are based on The Reference data Business Classification (TRBC) from LSEG. Yearly issuance amounts initially collected in USD were adjusted by 2024 USD Consumer Price Index.
Given that a significant portion of bonds are issued internationally, it is not possible to systematically assign issues to a certain country of issue. For this reason, the country breakdown is carried out based on the country of domicile of the issuer. The advanced/emerging market classification is based on IMF country classifications.
Rating information is based on OECD calculations using data obtained from LSEG that provides rating information from three leading rating agencies: Fitch, Moody’s and S&P. For each bond that has rating information in the dataset, a value of 1 is assigned to the lowest credit quality rating (C) and 21 to the highest credit quality rating (AAA for Fitch and S&P; and Aaa for Moody’s). There are 11 non‑investment grade categories: five from C (C to CCC+); and six from B (B- to BB+). There are ten investment grade categories: three from B (BBB- to BBB+); and seven from A (A- to AAA).
If ratings from multiple rating agencies are available for a given issue, their average is used. Some issues in the dataset, on the other hand, do not have rating information. For such issues, the average rating of all bonds issued by the same issuer in the same year (t) is assigned. If the issuer has no rated bonds in year t, year t-1 and year t-2 are also considered, respectively. This procedure increases the number of rated bonds in the dataset and hence improves how representative the rating-based analysis is. When differentiating between investment and non-investment grade bonds, the final rating is rounded to the closest integer and issuances with a rounded rating less than or equal to 11 are classified as non‑investment grade.
← 1. Some additional jurisdictions claim to have listing segments for growth companies, but due to data constraints, the OECD Capital Market Series dataset covers growth markets in 59 jurisdictions worldwide.