NASDAQ CEO Adena Friedman on retail stock ownership: "whole new wave of retail...is very exciting but they need to get educated properly."

Video Transcript

ADENA FRIEDMAN: Well, today, I would say over 50% of the adult population in the United States owns equities, either directly or indirectly. They might own them through a 401K or through a pension, through their own mutual funds, or direct ownership through the stock market. And what we're seeing this year is a whole new wave of retail coming in and saying, I want to have control over my investment decisions. I'm going to come in and participate directly in the markets, which is very exciting. But you also want to make sure that they get educated properly, so that when they come in, they have a good experience and they stay for the long term.

So we've actually launched an investor education portal in conjunction with the online brokerage firms and other industry organizations to make sure that, as these new investors come in, they understand what they're buying. They understand how to leverage the markets. They understand how to think about investments over the long term.

But at the same time, we have still a lot of work to do to make it so that the other half of the population also have the ability to access the markets as well. And that comes to a much bigger program, in terms of access to banking in under-served communities, making sure they can get small business loans in a way that they may not have access to them today. And then, ultimately, if they're able to create a business and create jobs, then giving their employees equity. So the more we can have employees at these companies own equity, to me, that's a great way to spread the access to capital to the broader population.