Why is the dematerialization of physical securities so important?
The industry demonstrated extreme resilience and agility throughout the extraordinary events of the COVID-19 pandemic in March and 4月il, managing unprecedented volatility and transaction volumes even as we coped with the uncertainties and challenges of working remotely.
处理实物证券, 然而, was a distraction from an otherwise resilient response by the industry to the pandemic. Physical processing personnel were unable to be on premises at their jobs to handle certificates, 在文件上盖章并签署, 接收支票和工艺文件. The result was no physical processing and no access to the vaults – or at best, access with extremely limited personnel and elongated processing timeframes.
Cashless and contactless commerce has accelerated and has reshaped every aspect of consumer behavior today, 物理证券处理也不例外. This is a very small piece of the industry’s business, 很简单, the costs and risks incurred by supporting physical securities are no longer acceptable.
The complete dematerialization of physical securities will contribute to a more cost-effective, 非常高效。, 透明的, 安全, 具有竞争力和弹性的市场.
The movement to transition away from physical certificates to electronic records goes back to the paperwork crisis in the 1960s. 为什么这在今天仍然是个问题?
六十年前, 交易所不得不在周三停止交易, 缩短其他交易日的交易时间, and extend settlement by a day to T+5 just to give a reprieve to deal with the backlog of physical securities. The industry’s solution was to pool securities in a central location – immobilization in the vaults of a newly-created company, The Depository Trust Company (直接转矩) – followed by minimizing certificate movements by replacing paper certificates with electronic records, 这个过程被称为去物质化.
目前，大多数U.S. securities, including municipal and corporate bonds, U.S. 政府及按揭证券, commercial paper and mutual funds are offered only in dematerialized form. 然而, 对于某些资产类别, 包括一些非物质化的, it is still possible for an investor to obtain physical certificates. Obtaining a physical certificate reintroduces the multiple handling touchpoints between 转让代理, 有益的所有者, 金融中介机构, 和直接转矩. 毫无疑问, dematerialization is a complex industrywide challenge and there always has been business and operational hurdles that will need to be overcome.
What are the risks and costs of physical securities processing?
The risks and costs associated with physical securities processing include everything from manual processing and delays in issuances and deliveries, 损失, 盗窃, 自然灾害. Consider the enormous vault recovery efforts after Hurricane Sandy. And consider the COVID-19 pandemic – an extraordinary disruption that economies and governments around the world are still navigating. The industry had to quickly implement various workaround solutions for limited physical processing and created some stop-gap solutions, 但即使是现在, 6个多月后, our industry is still not back to a pre-pandemic “business as usual” for physical securities processing.
在成本方面, the economies of scale for physical securities processing have been completely reversed over the past several years. The costs to support physical certificate processing remain fixed, 即使交易数量下降. Physical securities are very small piece of the business, yet the amount of effort required to support them is significantly disproportionate to their value.
怎样才能实现非物质化?
The plan that we’ve proposed in this white paper is very much a two-pronged approach – first, cease the issuance of certificated securities and automate manual touchpoints, 和明年, gradually eliminate the existing inventory of physical securities in the industry’s vaults. Both approaches are equally important; both must be addressed.
我们知道这是可以做到的. 在整个欧洲, 亚太地区, 非洲和拉丁美洲, other countries have stopped issuing physical certificates altogether. We are hopeful that working with the exchanges to amend listing requirements will be a significant step to end the creation of new physical certificates.
Dealing with the existing inventory will be more challenging. We have already reduced the inventory in 存’s vaults by a third over the past 8 years, 今天, less than 1% of assets we service – valued at approximately $780 billion dollars – are still in physical form. With concerted effort and the help of the transfer agent community, we believe a realistic target in the next three years would be the full dematerialization of 98%+ of all physical stock certificates.
利益相关者如何参与进来?
This white paper is intended to serve as a roadmap toward dematerialization. We are building consensus on critical next steps and engagement, much in the way the industry worked together cooperatively to successfully implement T+2 settlement in 2017.
这不仅仅是存的问题, physical securities held in vaults of banks and firms across the industry must also be addressed, 我们不能单独做到这一点. The success of our plan depends very much on the partnership of all stakeholders, 包括银行, 经纪人/经销商, 转让代理, 发行人, 监管机构, 行业vnsr威尼斯城官网登入, 与交流. 这需要新的商业实践, 技术平台的变化, 法律环境的变化, 而且还需要监管机构的支持.
点击这里阅读全文 新闻稿.