A central securities depository (CSD) is a specialized financial market infrastructure organization holding securities such as shares or bonds, either in certificated or uncertificated (dematerialized) form, allowing ownership to be easily transferred through a book entry rather than by a transfer of physical certificates. This allows brokers and financial companies to hold their securities at one location where they can be available for clearing and settlement. In recent decades this has usually been finished electronically, making it much faster and easier than was traditionally the case where physical certificates had to be exchanged after a trade had been completed.

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