Cross-listing (or multi-listing, or interlisting) of shares is when a firm lists its equity shares on one or more foreign stock exchange in addition to its domestic exchange. To be cross-listed, a company must thus comply with the requirements of all the stock exchanges in which it is listed, such as filing.

Cross-listing should not be confused with other methods that allow a company's stock to be traded in two different exchanges, such as:

Generally such a company's primary listing is on a stock exchange in its country of incorporation, and its secondary listing(s) is/are on an exchange in another country. Cross-listing is especially common for companies that started out in a small market but grew into a larger market. For example, numerous large non-U.S. companies are listed on the New York Stock Exchange or NASDAQ as well as on their respective national exchanges such as BlackBerry, Enbridge, Equinor, Ericsson, Nokia, Toyota and Sony.

Depository Receipts (DR) are instruments derived from another underlying instrument while Multi-listed instruments represent the actual stock of a company. DR are convertible back to ordinary shares, following a process dependent upon the sponsoring facility that created the instrument. Ownership of a DR does not convey the same rights as a direct holder of equity shares, but in most cases the DR is convertible back into the original instrument through a process of conversion. The DR receive a different ISIN number, recognizing that they are not the same fungible instrument as the underlying stock. Popular DR include American Depositary Receipts (ADR), European Depositary Receipts (EDR), global depository receipts (GDR, also referred to as international depository receipts), and Global Registered Shares (GRS).

Multi listed or cross-listed shares, by contrast, are technically the same financial instrument. Fungibility is a concern across markets. For example, shares of IBM cannot be purchased on NYSE and sold, same-day, on the London Stock Exchange, even though IBM is cross listed in both markets. There is a re-registration process that must occur to move the number of outstanding shares from one jurisdiction to the other. This is primarily due to market inefficiencies and structures required to maintain the integrity of registered shares within specific jurisdictions (typically regulatory driven).

When a company decides to cross-list, the stock is technically fungible between exchanges. Royal Dutch Shell, IBM, and Siemens are all examples where the same issue is traded in multiple markets. However, in Frankfurt and Paris, they are traded in EUR, London in GBP, and on NYSE in USD. Prices are subject to local market conditions, as well as FX fluctuations and are not kept in perfect parity between markets. They tend to be more liquid than ADRs, GDRs and those types of conventions. While 'technically' fungible, these separate primary listings (they would all be considered 'primary' listings) are subject to re-registration which creates significant settlement risk if an investor wants to buy on one exchange and sell in another (especially where the currencies differ).

Shares traded in a true cross listing / multi listed scenario are processed, matched and settled via the market mechanisms specific to the local exchange. In this regard, even though shares of IBM bought on NYSE and shares of IBM purchased on LSE are technically the same instrument, those purchased on NYSE will settle via the mechanisms associated with NYSE and the DTCC in the United States. Those shares purchased on the LSE will settle via the mechanisms of the LSE and CREST in the United Kingdom.

Shares 'admitted for trading', such as IBM listed via ARCA in Frankfurt, will settle via DTCC. IBM is also cross-listed in Frankfurt, in which case, those transactions will settle via the local German market processes.