Digitally connecting the financial market
Gregory Naicker
CSD Services – a robust Financial Market Infrastructure, enabling clients through digital, innovative solutions
Safeguarding the ownership
rights of investors
At the core of what we do is the safeguarding of ownership rights. We are entrusted to hold the legal, digital record of ownership for equities, bonds, derivatives, money markets and participatory notes in collective investment schemes (exchange traded funds). We provide services for listed and unlisted securities, covering both public and private markets.
Power in
digital record keeping
We champion a South African financial market that has 100% digitised share certificates as the only way to truly safeguard all investors’ ownership rights. Approximately 4% of the share certificates in circulation in South Africa remain in paper format. Since 2018, issuers have unrestricted choice in converting share registers to electronic format. We work with issuers to ensure a smooth and seamless transition and rapid set up of digital share certificates, thereby working together to protect investors’ ownership rights and contributing to the advancement of South Africa’s financial market.
Seamless registry
services
Through the Beneficiary Download (BND) process, or share register, we collate ownership information provided by market participants, brokers and FSCA-approved nominees to create a single-source record of beneficial ownership of securities in South Africa. This service not only assists issuers in complying with their legal obligations, but also promotes market transparency.
Digital innovation to
connect issuers and shareholders
In a market first for South Africa, Strate e-Voting connects issuers and shareholders seamlessly in a fully digitised end-to-end voting platform. Shareholders can participate in company meetings from anywhere in the world, vote in real-time and change their votes multiple times before a meeting closes.
In-platform chat functionality ensures that shareholders are able to interact during a meeting, while having full transparency and visibility. Stronger investor relations are established between issuers and shareholders, and the legal right of the voting outcome is upheld while maintaining the highest levels of corporate governance and integrity at company meetings.
Strate e-Voting caters for nominees to distribute voting rights to their customer base. In this way, voting control is in the hands of the beneficial owners of shares – who are the ultimate owners of the company – and not intermediaries. Traditionally, shareholder votes go through a multi-level process involving numerous intermediaries before reaching an issuer. This takes time, increases the risk of human error, and does not give investors a direct line of communication to the company they are invested in. Strate e-Voting changes this paradigm and includes the following benefits:
- More control for shareholders and beneficial owners
- Fully auditable and traceable results in real time
- Significantly improved corporate governance
- Significantly improved shareholder engagement
- Improved interaction between issuers and their shareholders
- Reduced administrative burden and human intervention
- Comprehensive reports that meet Code for Responsible Investing in South Africa (CRISA) requirements
See media coverage here.
Robust settlement
services
We enable on- and off-market trading for multiple security types, including equities, bonds, money markets and exchange traded funds in both the public and private markets. With robust settlement systems and processes, we enable settlement and matching for all of South Africa’s equity exchanges: the JSE, A2X, CTSE and I-Ex.
As South Africa’s principal central securities depository, we hold and update the business partner ID (BPID) for all money markets trading in South Africa.
We also provide key insights into the South African capital markets by providing data reports, which cover topics such as settlement volumes, resident versus non-resident ownership statistics, value of trades made, and more.
Reliable operations and
world-class asset services
Our world-class asset servicing capabilities support issuers with both standard and complex corporate activities that unlock significant benefits for issuers and investors.
We facilitate multi-jurisdictional listings by providing comprehensive research and consulting solutions to local and foreign companies that need to understand the South African financial landscape and those that require the implementation of international market standards for dual listing and reporting purposes.
We facilitate the processing of corporate actions (dividends, interest and redemptions, among others) across all asset classes.
Supporting the traceability
of assets globally
South African entities that operate in international markets require a legal entity identifier (LEI), a unique reference code used across markets and jurisdictions to identify legally distinct entities engaged in financial transactions.
We are authorised as South Africa’s Local Operating Unit (LOU), mandated by the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) to issue and record all LEIs for the South African market.
LEIs are unique to each entity and hold information about that entity’s ownership structure, which aids in financial transactions and asset transparency by serving as a type of global directory.
Some of the benefits of using a global LEI system include the ability to seamlessly trace assets and transactions; reliability as a trusted method of identification; public transparency through a non-proprietary open system; and the opportunity to reduce trading costs going forward.
To register for an LEI, click here.
