By Daily Mail Reporter Updated: If you're a private share investor, should you become a member of the electronic share trading system Crest? Four years ago, the London stock market went through a mini-revolution.

For as long as there had been a stock market, paper share certificates had proved who owned the shares. But ina new electronic settlement system called Crest came in. The idea is that, eventually, no-one will have paper share certificates. Instead all shareholder records will be kept on computer.

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The advantage of Crest - which now handles most UK listed companies - is that it is cheap and convenient. While it is still possible to use paper share certificates and go through the old-fashioned clearance systems, the cost of trading might be higher than it is through Crest.

Also, through Crest, the time it takes to complete a share deal has been cut. There used to be a substantial gap between when you bought or sold your shares and when you had to pay for them or received your money. Within the Crest settlement system there are just five days between trading and settlement days. This will narrow to just three days from February If you hold paper certificates, it takes about ten days to settle a trade. So Crest has become a way of life for most people who dabble in the stock market.

But there are disadvantages with Crest, as private shareholders have found out. When everyone had paper certificates there wasn't any doubt about who owned the shares. And it was easy to pass on annual reports - as well as any share perks - to shareholders. Now that most people hold shares electronically it has become more difficult to tell who owns the shares. Usually, if you are a shareholder, you hold your shares in what is called a nominee name or account. Nominee accounts are run by stockbrokers who hold all the shares listed in their name.

This makes buying and selling shares easy.

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Just because you hold your shares in a nominee account doesn't mean that you aren't the owner of the shares. But it does mean your name does not appear on company share registers.

Instead, the nominee name is there. But if your shares are in a nominee name, then you won't get annual reports from the companies you own shares in.

Neither will you be invited to the annual general meeting. And you might miss out on share perks - some companies will only pass perks, such as product discounts, to those named on its share register. You can get annual reports and information passed on to you if you hold your shares in a nominee name, but you might have to pay extra for the service. But there is a way of trading through Crest without holding your shares in a nominee name.

You do this by becoming a Crest member - though your membership must be sponsored by a stockbroker. As a personal member of Crest, your name will appear on the registers of the companies you own shares in.

You will also get invitations to meetings, annual reports and any perks on offer.

And you can still deal electronically through the broker sponsoring your Crest membership. But the problem is finding a broker who offers personal Crest membership. To become a personal member of Crest through NatWest you have to register with its Brokerline service. But there is no separate charge barclays stockbrokers nominee account Crest membership: Richard Hunter, head of the dealing services division at NatWest says: If you hold shares through its nominee account, The stock market game smg has arranged a deal with American company ADP so that shareholder information is passed on to binary option 5 min account holders.

So, though you hold the shares in a nominee name, you can still get shareholder information usually withheld from nominee account holders. The main disadvantage of being a personal member of Crest is that you are tied to the broker who is sponsoring your membership - unless, that is, you are prepared ohio tuition trust authority investment options pay a fee to go elsewhere.

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