Re: e$: Geodesic Securities Markets

[rah@shipwright.com (Robert Hettinga)]

Forgive me for *ever* doubting you...

Perry Metzger says,

>Actually, even in the case of securities largely settled by book
>entry, DTC still holds physical certificates. That is not, however,
>the point.

I know It's Not the Point, but I got curious anyway ;-). After all, I
haven't been near a brokerage cage in 10 years (NIDS was big stuff back
then), and I thought maybe it's time to learn how the world really works
these days... So I called DTC, the Depository Trust Corporation, on Water
St. in Manhattan, the Mother of all Securities Clearinghouses.

After about five transfers, I talked to a very nice lady in underwriting.
She said they really *do* have bales of securities in a vault, and that
they have a program called FAST, where securities are stored in banks also.
However, she said that a growing number of securities are issued book
entry only.  Issues of up to $150 million can be issued on a *single*
certificate.  That certificate is held just like the other securities
issues, in a vault.

She said that like par value, physical delivery is becoming more and more
obsolete. That makes sense. Once a certificate is put into the vault at
DTC, it usually never leaves.  It might as well not be there at all.
Changes in ownership are reflected by offseting book entries. Ah, the
wonders of double-entry bookeeping.

Oddly enough, an e$ certification scheme reverses that paradigm. The book
entries disapear, the certificates proliferate, and the clearinghouse
becomes a referee, "blessing" the trade.

Cheers,
Bob

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Robert Hettinga  (rah@shipwright.com) "There is no difference between someone
Shipwright Development Corporation     who eats too little and sees Heaven and
44 Farquhar Street                       someone who drinks too much and sees
Boston, MA 02331 USA                       snakes." -- Bertrand Russell
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