In the US, the role of the central securities depository is done by the DTCC.[0] But the registered holder (nominee) of the DTCC is a separate legal entity known as Cede & Co. [1] (I recommend reading Matt Levine's article for further discourse)<p>So basically, the concept of ownership of a financial asset (which is itself, an abstraction) is further abstracted, for the purpose of making the system more efficient.<p>Fun fact: After Hurricane Sandy in 2012, the DTCC had to recover/restore many damaged paper certificates after their securities vault was flooded. I don't know whether these had any electronic entries but I assume they did. But the physical certificates still needed to be retained.[2]<p>If you're interested in this sort of market structure/market participant discussion, I'd recommend the textbook <i>Trading and Exchanges: Market Microstructure for Practitioners</i>, by Larry Harris.<p>0. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depository_Trust_%26_Clearing_Corporation" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depository_Trust_%26_Clearing_...</a><p>1. <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2015-07-14/banks-forgot-who-was-supposed-to-own-dell-shares" rel="nofollow">https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2015-07-14/banks-for...</a><p>2. <a href="http://www.dtcc.com/annuals/2013/superstorm-sandy-recovery/index.php" rel="nofollow">http://www.dtcc.com/annuals/2013/superstorm-sandy-recovery/i...</a>