Cede and Company (also known as Cede and Co. or Cede & Co.), shorthand for "certificate depository", is a specialist United States financial institution that processes transfers of stock certificates on behalf of

Depository Trust Company Depository Trust Company (DTC), founded in 1973, is a New York corporation that performs the functions of a central securities depository as part of the US National Market System. DTC annually settles transactions worth hundreds of trillions o ...

, the central securities depository used by the United States National Market System, which includes the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed c ...

, and

Nasdaq The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...

. Cede technically owns all of the publicly issued stock in the United States. Thus, investors do not themselves hold direct property rights in stock, but rather have contractual rights that are part of a chain of contractual rights involving Cede. Securities held at Depository Trust Company are registered in its nominee name, Cede & Co., and recorded on its books in the name of the brokerage firm through which they were purchased; on the brokerage firm's books they are assigned to the accounts of their beneficial owners.

History

Founded in 1996, Cede was formed for the purpose of efficiently processing transfers of stock certificates on behalf of the

. The name "Cede" was selected as a reference to "certificate depository". The company is at

55 Water Street 55 Water Street is a skyscraper on the East River in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York City. The 53-story, structure was completed in 1972. Designed by Emery Roth and Sons, the building was de ...

, Suite Conc4, New York, New York 10041.

Structure as a partnership

Cede and Company is a New York City-based partnership of certain employees of

.Senate Report. Disclosure of Corporate Ownership. December 27, 1973. Cede is a separate

legal person In law, a legal person is any person or 'thing' (less ambiguously, any legal entity) that can do the things a human person is usually able to do in law – such as enter into contracts, sue and be sued, own property, and so on. The reason for ...

from Depository Trust Company, which is owned by DTC Participants, who are banks and brokerage houses, and not employees of DTC. One reason Cede is structured as a partnership is that each general partner can order transfers of stock registered in the name of the partnership without the need for presenting a separate corporate resolution to the stock issuer's

transfer agent A stock transfer agent, transfer agent, share registry or transfer agency is an entity, usually a third party firm unrelated to security transactions, that manages the change in ownership of company stock or investment fund shares, maintains a re ...

or stock registrar to validate the authority of the transfer.

References

{{reflist Companies based in New York City Financial services companies based in New York City

History

Structure as a partnership

See also

References