In investing, a developed market is a country that is most developed in terms of its economy and capital markets. The country must be high income, but this also includes openness to foreign ownership, ease of capital movement, and efficiency of market institutions. This term is contrasted with developing market (emerging markets and frontier markets are types of developing markets). FTSE Group list FTSE Group, a provider of economic and financial data, assigns the market status of countries as Developed, Advanced Emerging, Secondary Emerging or Frontier on the basis of their economic size, wealth, quality of markets, depth of markets, breadth of markets. From 26 September 2019, FTSE Group classifies 26 countries as developed markets: FTSE criteria Developed countries all have met criteria under the following categories: They are high income economies (as measured by the World Bank GNI per capita Rating, Market and Regulatory Environment) Formal stock market regulatory authorities actively monitor market (e.g., SEC, FSA, SFC) Fair and non-prejudicial treatment of minority shareholders Non or selective incidence of foreign ownership restrictions No objections or significant restrictions or penalties applied on the repatriation of capital Free and well-developed equity market Free and well-developed foreign exchange market Non or simple registration process for foreign investors Custody and Settlement Settlement – Rare incidence of failed trades Custody-Sufficient competition to ensure high quality custodian services Clearing & settlement – T +3 or shorter, T+7 or shorter for Frontier Stock Lending is permitted Settlement – Free delivery available Custody – Omnibus account facilities available to international investors Dealing Landscape Brokerage – Sufficient competition to ensure high quality broker services Liquidity – Sufficient broad market liquidity to support sizeable global investment Transaction costs – implicit and explicit costs to be reasonable and competitive Short sales permitted Off-exchange transactions permitted Efficient trading mechanism Transparency – market depth information / visibility and timely trade reporting process Derivatives Developed derivatives markets Size of Market Market Capitalisation Total Number of Listed Companies (as of 31 December 2008) MSCI list As of June 2019, MSCI classified the following 25 countries as developed markets: According to MSCI Global investable Market Indexes Methodology – November 2019, Cyprus and Luxembourg "are part of the developed market universe", but "given their modest size, these markets are not included in the MSCI World index". S&P list As of 24 June 2019, Standard and Poor's classifies the following 25 countries as developed markets: STOXX list