Regulating by Industry Consensus – The Case of Digitising the UK Securities Market

Abstract

In July 2022, the UK Government set up a Taskforce convening the financial services in-dustry. The mandate of this Taskforce is to forge a consensus amongst industry participants making it possible to eliminate paper certificates and to improve the current model of holding uncertificated securities. Both aims are to be achieved in a way that improves the ability of investors to exercise the rights associated with their shares. This is a monumentous task, which the Government is somewhat naively hoping can be achieved by a voluntary agreement amongst financial services providers. The article adds to the debate in this area in two ways. With funding from the British Academy, we conducted seventeen semi-structured interviews with legal practitioners, investors, custodians, registrars, technology experts and voting agents. These interviews have enabled us to develop a deeper and em-pirically grounded understanding of the current model of holding securities. In addition, the article is the first academic contribution examining the most recent initiative advanced by the UK Government.

Keywords: digitising securities, corporate governance, intermediated securities, blockchain technology, ditigal securities