International Depository Receipt - IDR

An International Depository Receipt, or IDR, is a receipt that the bank can give you to prove the ownership of shares of underlying stock of a foreign company that the bank has in a trust.

In the U.S., the IDR is the ADR, or the American Depository Receipt. Europe’s IDRs are GDRs, or Global Depository Receipts.

IDRs are a kind of "back door" way for companies to get in on the foreign trade action without having to comply with all the issuing requirements that normal securities on exchanges have to go through. Instead, companies can get foreign banks to buy shares of their company (or foreign branches at least) via a trust, which can then be sold to investors, with the IDR—the actual receipt—to prove it.