The days of paper share certificates are numbered – albeit nobody knows precisely how many they have left. They were due to be gone by 2025 as per European Union regulations; post-Brexit, the UK government’s digitisation task force is looking at how and when to permanently retire them in this country.
Paper share certificates are not as rare as you might think: the government estimates that there could be up to 10mn still in existence, although the values are in many cases quite small. For example, asset manager Abrdn (ABDN) has roughly 90,000 certificated shareholders, around 70,000 of whom hold fewer than 2,000 shares – positions that are currently worth less than £3,100.
There are obvious advantages to getting rid of paper share certificates. Trading and holding shares via a digital platform is quicker and more efficient for investors, not to mention that paper certificates can quite easily be forgotten or lost. Eliminating paper certificates would also mean that companies only communicate with their shareholders digitally, making it cheaper.