Effective March 30,2009, Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s American Depositary Receipt (ADR) stock started trading in the OTC market with the ticker CMWAY.

Each ADR represents one ordinary share. The depository bank is The Bank of New York Mellon.

A profile of the bank from their corporate site:

“The Commonwealth Bank is one of Australia’s leading providers of integrated financial services including retail banking, premium banking, business banking, institutional banking, funds management, superannuation, insurance, and investment and sharebroking products and services. The Group is one of the largest listed companies on the Australian Stock Exchange.

The Group has A$487,572 million in assets held and funds under administration (as at 30 June 2008).”

With a staff of over 38,000 Commonwealth operates1009 branches nationally. It has international branches in the U.S., the U.K., Singapore, Hong Kong, Malta, New Zealand, Fiji, Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan, China and India.

CMWAY closed at $26.80 on May 6th. Since 2000, Commonwealth has maintained a full year dividend payout ratio of over 70%.

For more information, go to their Shareholder Centre site by clicking here.