THE Securities Commission of Zimbabwe (SECZ) has ordered the transfer of all unclaimed shares locked in nominee accounts that were previously held by brokerage firms to licenced custodians.
According to a notice issued by the equities market, shares that were held by the country’s 17 brokerage firms will, with immediate effect, be held by either Old Mutual Custodial Services or ZB Custodial Services.
This, according to SECZ, followed a directive that was issued by the Commission on August 29 2012 to all securities dealing firms instructing them to register all securities in the names of their respective beneficial owners and subsequently delivering the securities to the owners.
The directive was triggered by an investigation which revealed that “a substantial number of shares remains unclaimed and unidentifiable with the relevant beneficiary owner”.
A nominee account is a type of account in which a stockbroker holds shares belonging to clients, making buying and selling those shares easier. In such an arrangement, shares are said to be held in street name.
“The Securities Commission of Zimbabwe advises members of the public that all share certificates that were previously under the custody of securities dealing firms that were not collected have now been transferred to licensed custodians,” reads the notice in part.
“The securities that remained unclaimed were handed over to Old Mutual Custodial Services and ZB Custodial Services for safekeeping, pending collection by the rightful owners.
“Members of the public who invested in shares, but did not collect their share certificates from the securities dealing firms listed here in under are advised to collect them from the reflected respective custodian. It is only the proven owners of the shares that will be permitted to collect or retrieve the share certificates from the custodians.”
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Last November, SECZ transferred all stocks that were being held by the now defunct New Africa Securities to the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange and respective investors after it became apparent the brokerage firm would fail to resume operations following its suspension.
