Cede and Company (also known as Cede and Co. or Cede & Co.) is a specialist United States financial institution that processes transfers of stock certificates on behalf of Depository Trust Company, the central securities depository used by the United States National Market System, which includes the New York Stock Exchange, and Nasdaq.[1] Cede and Company is a shorthand for the phrase 'certificate depository.'[2] Appropriately, the word 'cede' means to 'give up (power or territory)'[3] because investors give up their stock and companies give up their shareholders to an intermediary.[4]
Cede technically owns most of the publicly issued stock in the United States.[5] Thus, most investors do not themselves hold direct property rights in stock, but rather have contractual rights that are part of a chain of contractual rights involving Cede.[6] Securities held at Depository Trust Company are registered in its nominee name, Cede & Co., and recorded on its books in the name of the brokerage firm through which they were purchased; on the brokerage firm's books they are assigned to the accounts of their beneficial owners.[7]
Cede owns 83% of all issued stocks in the United States.[8] The other 17% of all issued stocks is owned by directly registered holders through the direct registration system.[needs update]