PREFACE

A substantial part of the work of investment banking and brokerage houses has to do with the transfer of securities. Such concerns receive certificates of stock or registered bonds from their customers or correspondents with instructions to have them transferred out of the name of the registered owner and into some other name on the books of the corporation.

In order to effect the transfer it is necessary that the stock certificates or bonds be presented at the transfer office of the corporation whose securities are sought to be transferred accompanied by the various documents and proofs required by the transfer agent for the protection of the corporation in making the desired transfer.

The transfer agent, on the one hand, is alert to exact from the registered owner all documents and proofs reasonably necessary to establish the right to have the transfer made and to afford adequate protection to the corporation in transferring the security. On the other hand, the registered owner of the security or his representative or agent is actuated solely

by the desire to effect the transfer with a minimum of inconvenience and delay.

A familiarity with the general requirements and regulations of transfer offices and with the reasons underlying such requirements will greatly promote the efficient handling by investment banking, and brokerage houses of these transfers. Such an understanding will serve to expedite the desired transfers and thereby promote the best interests of custo

mers.

For the above reasons it was the belief of the Education Committee of the Investment Bankers Association of America that a small book dealing with the legal aspects of the transfer of securities would serve a useful purpose. Accordingly the author, who has had a number of years' experience in passing upon the legal phases of transfers of securities, was requested by the committee to prepare a short volume on this subject, which is offered in the hope that it will enable a better understanding of the legal principles involved in these transfers and of the requirements generally imposed by corporations preliminary to transfer.

The author has received many valuable suggestions from the printed lectures of Messrs. F. L. Maraspin and H. B. Driver, delivered during the year 1917 before the Boston Chapter of the American Institute of Banking, and published under the title "Fundamental Principles of Stock Transfers."

Mr. Hastings Lyon and Mr. F. C. Nicodemus,

Jr., both of the New York bar, as well as Mr. E. W. Bulkley, of Chicago, and Mr. Orton Brewer, of New York, have read the manuscript, and have greatly assisted in its preparation by expert suggestion and criticism.

H. BRUA CAmpbell.

New York City, October 4, 1920.