There are plenty of brokers dealing only in stocks listed on local exchanges. Many of these are owned by banks or stockbrokers and are extensions of their current services. These are too numerous to mention but the chances are your bank or broker has already told you about their offering.

This is at least a step in the right direction but for the international investor this is probably not sufficient.

He or she will want at least to be able to access London and New York. So it is worth considering other sites such as DLJ Direct (www.dljdirect.co.uk), Sharepeople (www.sharepeople.co.uk), TD Waterhouse (www.tdwaterhouse.co.uk) and Fastrade (www.fastrade.co.uk).

But then this is not really sufficient for the investor who wants to invest in stocks quoted on the major continental European exchanges. They will be more satisfied with sites such as e-cortal (www.e-cortal.com, which trades in nine international markets, and (www.dab.com), which is well known in Germany and France but has plans to cover many more European markets soon. Charles Schwab, Sharepeople and TD Waterhouse can also offer some coverage in Europe as well London and the UK.

The full picture of international on-line brokerage services has still to be drawn, however. As we speak, new services are being launched and integration between existing on-line brokers has begun. Just as banks are consolidating internationally, stockmarkets are also merging cross border; so more international dealing facilities for private investors are bound to emerge.

The great news is of course that it is very easy to switch your broker. Accounts are usually set up on line and cash transferred electronically to dealing accounts. But it is worth querying one or two important points when opening a new brokerage account or deciding whether to switch brokers:

• What are the dealing costs? Is there an annual charge?
• Do they offer nominee services to hold your stocks and if so what is the cost?
• What are settlement times? Will this restrict the speed at which you can buy and sell stocks?
• Does the site provide account holders with good research?
• Does it pay adequate interest on funds deposited in a dealing account and can it offer accounts in different currencies — US$ and euro for example.
• What about telephone support? Is it available and is it cost and time effective to use?
• There is little doubt that more on-line brokers will become international, multilingual and multicurrency sooner or later. At present we are at an intermediate stage between local brokerages and world-wide trading capability.

It may sound like blue-sky thinking, but one day it will be possible to buy stocks listed on any exchange. Where the investor is based and whether he or she is sitting at a desk or on the move will be immaterial for their investment activities. When that happens the expat with international investment appetites will be much better served… but there is a way to go yet.

Richard Willsher is a London-based finance and investment writer. With a background in investment banking he has written for the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal and is former editor of The Investor.