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Street name

Registration of shares in the broker's name rather than yours, with the broker recording you as the beneficial owner; this is how almost all retail stock is held.

Street name exists because it makes settlement work. Your broker's position sits inside the depository under cede-and-co, and the broker keeps its own book of who owns what. You get instant transfers, easy securities-lending if you are on margin, and no paperwork.

What you give up is being on the company's register. Proxies, dividends, and corporate action elections reach you through the broker rather than the transfer-agent, and in a broker failure you rely on the broker's records and on investor protection insurance rather than on a direct entry in the company's books.

Example: a company's register shows one holder, Cede and Co, with 190M shares. Behind it sit 400 brokers and several million individual accounts, none of whom appear on the register by name.

Related: direct-registration, cede-and-co, dtcc, transfer-agent, securities-lending

Educational only, not advice. Spotted an error? Post in Site Feedback.