ICICIdirect, a virtual financial supermarket providing investment, protection, and loan products, on Monday, declared the expansion of its Global Investments facility to new markets like the UK, Japan, Germany, and Singapore.

ICICIdirect's Global Investment customers can trade in securities in these markets, as well as in the US. This facility is provided in association with Interactive Brokers LLC, a US-based online brokerage firm with multi-asset and multi-geography trading capabilities, the firm stated.

The whole customer journey, from onboarding to buying and selling of securities, will be completely digital.

"Since the encouraging response to our Global Investment facility for the US markets in August 2020, customers have been demanding for other markets too. We are happy to launch five new markets on the platform, with which our 5.5+ million customers can now avail of investment opportunities in these matured and well-regulated market, and also further de-risk their portfolio from a geography concentration point of view," stated Anupam Guha, Head - Private Wealth Management, ICICI Securities.

Some of these markets, like the US, provide unique advantages like no minimum ticket size and fractional ownership of shares, even small retail investors can build a portfolio effectively. 

Investors can participate in the opportunity through the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS), and can now invest across stocks, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), Mutual Funds (non-US) and fixed income products up to $250,000 per annum.  

Some of these markets, like the US, provide unique advantages like no minimum ticket size and fractional ownership of shares, even small retail investors can build a portfolio effectively.