Depository Participants (Custodians) open and maintain Securities Accounts on behalf of clients. These comprise Clients’ Securities Accounts and Participants’ (proprietary) Securities Accounts which are segregated from each other. Clients’ Securities Accounts are only opened through and registered with a Depository Participant. There is not restriction on the number of security accounts that the client can open with the various Depository Participants?
The ZSE Depository accepts deposits of securities certificates from Clients through their Depository Participants. To use the ZSE Depository services, the Investor opens a Securities accounts in the CSD system through a Depository Participant. Deposited certificates are forwarded to the Transfer Secretary of the issuer for the confirmation of the authenticity thereof. Clients’ Securities Accounts are credited only upon receipt of the written confirmation of the authenticity of the deposited certificates from the Transfer Secretary. This process eliminates the risk of introducing invalid securities in the CSD system. The registry has up to 72 hours to submit the confirmation to the ZSE Depository.
Clients can withdraw securities from the CSD by submitting a request through their Depository Participant. Upon withdrawal, the Client Securities Account is debited and the issuer’s registry is instructed to issue a certificate in the name of the client.
An investor may have more than one account with the same or different participants. The investor can transfer securities among these accounts by making the request through the relevant Participants which then transfer the securities online. The Depository participant initiating the transfer will need to validate that there is no change in the beneficial ownership in the securities and the CSD system will validate this by checking the identification numbers on both accounts.
The CSD rules provides instances where securities may be transferred from one investor account to the next. Instances where transfers of eligible securities between Depository Participants and between Depository Participants and their clients are permitted include:
The Depository Services also includes the recording of pledges in favour of lending institutions with the agreement of both the borrower & the lending institution. The CDS procedures require that both the pledgor (borrower) and the pledgee (lending institution) open accounts in the CSD through their respective Depository Participants. The ZSE Depository will keep records of the pledge in the pledgee’s collateral account for the quantity agreed by the different parties and in accordance with the details submitted in the Securities Pledge Form by the parties concerned. In the records of CSD, a pledgor remains the shareholder of the pledged securities, however, the pledgor cannot avail of these shares for any other transaction unless the pledgee submits the appropriate pledge release instruction in accordance with CSD rules.
Payment of dividends and other similar distributions by an Issuer is performed by the Issuer’s Transfer Secretary. The role of ZSE Depository is to provide the Transfer Secretary with the list of shareholders together with all relevant details as at the record date.
In the events of other corporate actions such as bonus issue, rights issue, share split and initial public offerings, securities are directly credited to the securities accounts of holders in the CSD system. The issuer does not issue share certificates to shareholders who already have securities accounts on the CSD.