Why Transparency is a Foundational Pillar of the Global Economy

At the center of free and fair markets sits transparency — a foundational pillar that moves global economies forward. It ensures that everyone has access to vital information to navigate the financial system with confidence. Transparency keeps markets healthy, and healthy markets are the engine of economic growth and opportunity.

How can we create and support transparent, equitable and efficient markets?

As the first electronic exchange, we broke barriers by providing real-time market information to all participants, eliminating the need for a trading floor to settle over-the-counter (OTC) stock prices. In an instant, we made markets more accessible and efficient. The same year we were founded, Nasdaq welcomed a three-year-old start-up named Intel to the public markets, using proprietary technology to provide transparent and efficient execution of an initial public offering (IPO). Following Intel’s IPO, we became home to the most groundbreaking companies of our time — Microsoft, Amazon, Apple and Google — and together redefined the future of the global economy. Over the years, we’ve worked with capital market stakeholders, including regulators, underwriters, legal advisors, and more, to develop a variety of listing options beyond the traditional IPO, including direct listings and special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) IPOs, among other options.

Today, we’re the exchange to over 5,200 public companies that are disrupting industries, and sometimes, even creating their own. With a market value of nearly $29 trillion, our listed companies span industries such as retail, health care, finance and technology. From Moderna’s life-saving vaccines to Adobe’s AI-generated images to Nvidia’s semiconductors that are powering the world forward—our companies are defining the future of the global economy.

How can we provide companies with unmatched visibility and critical access to capital but also drive market modernization?

“Nasdaq is a securities exchange, and that is our foundation, but today, we really are a technology company that serves the global capital markets,” said Nasdaq Chair and CEO Adena Friedman. “We have really deepened our relationships across corporates, investors, market participants and other exchanges with technology.”

Over the last several years, amid the modernization of market infrastructure and the evolving regulatory environment, the capital markets landscape has grown increasingly more complex, leading to greater scrutiny of corporate investments and disclosures. In turn, greater transparency across all facets of business and markets — from governance processes and sustainability reporting to IPOs, price discovery and market data — is needed for individuals and institutions to make the most informed decisions.

Given the rapidly changing market landscape, we are constantly anticipating and adapting to evolving regulations in order to improve transparency across the financial system. We offer an extensive array of solutions designed to help corporates and investors navigate the increasingly complex landscape.

“The ever-changing regulatory environment coupled with ongoing advances in technology produces challenges and opportunities for compliance professionals,” said Tony Sio, Head of Regulatory Strategy and Innovation at Nasdaq. “Effectively navigating that landscape is key to protecting the markets whilst still fueling innovation.”

How can our data and corporate solutions benefit both companies and investors?

Our Investment Intelligence community is dedicated to providing clients—from pension funds to asset managers to financial advisors to everyday investors—with the insights they need to feel empowered to make intelligent investment decisions. We provide our clients with the solutions, expertise and experience to best leverage their data points to drive their business.  

Our investor relations tools help companies to collect, organize and analyze their data to make for a more fair and efficient process. We assist companies in maintaining their investor relations by making it easier for them to provide their shareholders with the information they need to feel confident in their investment—a critical part of obtaining and maintaining capital.

We help public, private and nonprofit organizations worldwide by supplying them with governance solutions that allow them to maximize the effectiveness of their board. Our tools help board members have open, honest lines of communication with each other and corporates.

With our unique positioning at the intersection of capital markets and technology, we serve as the bridge between corporates and investors, offering a wide range of ESG tools to help them both navigate the complex and ever-evolving ESG landscape. Our recently launched product, Sustainable Lens, makes end-to-end sustainability reporting easier than ever before. Sustainable Lens is an AI-powered tool that arms companies with an assistant to summarize disclosures, answer questions, search through companies’ documents and benchmark disclosures against industry standards.

Our offerings also provide institutional investors with qualitative and quantitative data to help them understand how companies are managing their ESG strategies while also making it easy for them to measure the global sustainability effect of a portfolio and individual securities. Our future-forward expertise, tools and technologies help increase transparency and reduce friction for all players in the marketplace.

“Many companies that have deemed sustainability to be an important material aspect to their business have decided to change their transparency to external stakeholders by disclosing more information through a variety of different forums,” said Mike Bartels, senior vice president of IR & ESG Services.

We are committed to increasing transparency so that the investment and corporate communities can make better-informed decisions, ultimately leading to a more equitable and competitive marketplace—a key component to an efficient economy.

“At Nasdaq, we believe that fair, secure and transparent markets are vital to creating strong economies that move the world forward,” said Friedman.