Depositary Receipt

What Does Depositary Receipt Mean?
A negotiable financial instrument issued by a bank to represent a foreign company's publicly traded securities. The depositary receipt trades on a local stock exchange.

Investopedia explains Depositary Receipt
Depositary receipts make it easier to buy shares in foreign companies because the shares of the company don't have to leave the home state.

When the depositary bank is in the U.S., the instruments are known as American Depositary Receipts (ADRs). European banks issue European depositary receipts, and other banks issue global depositary receipts (GDRs).