The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has proposed its first major overhaul of transfer-agent rules since regulations were adopted in the late 1970s and early 1980s, opening the door for blockchain or other distributed-ledger technology to serve as a company's master securityholder file.
The proposal, put forward on Sept. 1, would let Wall Street's official shareholder records move onchain while keeping regulated transfer agents in control of the process. Under the plan, blockchain or distributed-ledger technology could serve as the master securityholder file, or part of it, rather than being limited to a parallel record or digital representation of ownership.
This approach would bring tokenized securities deeper into the core infrastructure that determines who legally owns shares. A single recordkeeping transfer agent would still retain responsibility, according to the proposal.
The changes mark the first significant update to transfer-agent rules since they were first adopted decades ago, reflecting the SEC's move to accommodate blockchain-based recordkeeping within the existing regulatory framework governing securities ownership.
Source: cryptoslate.com
