The future of stock exchanges in many, especially emerging economies, is
consequently not obvious. But, this does not mean that firms and investors will not have
access to financial services. To the contrary, costs, terms, and liquidity can improve with
increased migration to exchanges with better rules and greater transparency. Given the
increased remote access to trading systems, domestic investors neither need to give up on
their ability to trade stocks, even when they are listed abroad. The policy implication is
that countries might be better off not focussing on developing full-fledged local stock
exchanges, but rather concentrate on creating the conditions, such as improving
shareholder rights and the quality of local legal systems, that allow corporations to issue
and trade shares abroad efficiently. This facilitation will also need to involve the
harmonization of corporate governance, accounting, listing and other rules with those in
international financial centers, and in many environments the strengthening of securities
markets' enforcement.