Why do you need a share registrar?
Quite simply, there is currently no legal obligation for companies who are not listed on a stock exchange to maintain timely records of holders of shares and other securities they have issued.
Small private companies either carry out this task in-house, or contract with their professional advisers such as lawyers or accountants to keep a share registrar, but this approach may not always be ideal – and is difficult to scale.
It can be time consuming, expensive, pose an operational risk and is also impractical as a business grows – or if it is issuing a wider range of instruments, such as bonds.
As the number of securities holders on a company’s register – and consequently the complexity of managing it – expands, the requirement for a professional share registrars service arises.
Outsourcing the management of the securities holder register allows a firm with specialist knowledge to remove the internal burden, whilst from a governance perspective this also provides a degree of reassurance to directors – and indeed securities holders in general.
However in the British Isles (UK, Ireland, Channel Islands and the Isle of Man) a system operates where physical share certificates can sit alongside electronic holdings.
Avenir, with its excellent technology, operate an efficient real time on-line register, but can also offer paper certificates where this is preferred. QR codes are automatically added to all certificates to enable easy authentication.