Six of the 304 warrants scheduled for dematerialisation under SA's electronic settlement system have reached the 100% dematerialisation mark.
Strate, which oversees the electronic settlement of equities transactions on the JSE and performs the role of SA's central securities depository, says this is a first for both the securities industry and warrants market.
Dematerialisation refers to the conversion of tradable securities from a paper scrip environment to a system based on electronic records.
Strate CEO Monica Singer says the rate at which the market is converting shares into an electronic record is pleasing.
Singer announced last month that all the JSE-listed equities had been migrated to the electronic settlement environment without hiccup, an achievement reached after five years of groundwork with banks, listed companies, transfer secretaries, exchange members, the JSE and Strate.
This means that investors wishing to sell their shares cannot do so until they are converted from share certificates into electronic records of ownership.
More than 81 billion JSE-listed securities have been dematerialised so far.
This represents 64% of the total issued shares and 77% of the JSE's total market capitalisation.
To date, commodity portfolio manager Kumba Resources boasts the highest dematerialisation percentage for the equities market, with 99.95% of its issued shares converted to electronic scrip.
Strate intends eventually to settle all financial instruments, and has put in a tender for money market instruments.
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