|
Keeping of Dematerialized Securities Register
Principles of Dematerialized Securities Registration
The Securities Act stipulates that the registration shall be carried out by the SCP through:
- issuer registers, i.e., registration of securities issued by a single issuer,
- owner accounts, i.e., registration of securities that are owned by a single owner.
A part of the SCP registers may also be kept by another legal entity on the basis of an agreement concluded between the SCP and such legal entity. A permission by the Czech National Bank is necessary for the conclusion of such agreement to be valid.
The manner of keeping the SCP registers has been defined in detail in the SCP Operation Rules. A survey and description of provided services, including the data base structure, are contained in the Basic Register of Securities manual.
Types of Dematerialized Securities
The issuance of shares, bonds, or mutual fund certificates in dematerialized form is subject, as for the registration in the SCP, practically to no restrictions concerning their form, currency in which they are expressed, nominal value, transferability, etc.
Dematerialized Securities Owner
The rights connected with dematerialized securities may be exercised, on principle, by persons registered as owners thereof in the SCP register. In consequence, each change of dematerialized security owner must be registered in the SCP register. A security becomes property of a concrete owner through the registration of the above right in the SCP.
Data Protection in the SCP Register
The data kept in the SCP register are not of public character. The SCP keeps such information in secrecy in the scope set down by § 69 of the Securities Act in accordance with the provisions of other laws concerning secrecy, e.g., the Act on the protection of personal data in information systems. The correctness of database use is being systematically checked by three separate and independent bodies — the SCP Complaints Department in the Asseco Czech Republic, a.s. (Formerly Enterprise of Computation Technology, Joint-Stock Co.), the SCP Inspection Unit, and the Czech National BankThe securities owner can ensure the top-level security of his account against unauthorized disposal if he applies for the issuance of, and receives, a chip card to his account. The SCP bears full legal responsibility for the data integrity of the register it keeps, which means the responsibility for the completeness and correctness thereof. State Guarantee for SCP Obligations
The SCP legal liability for data integrity differs in principle from the SCP liability for damage that may arise to securities owners or to other persons on capital market if the SCP has carried out an incorrect, incomplete, belated, unauthorized, or otherwise faulty instruction in its register of dematerialized securities. The SCP has adopted a number of measures preventing the implementation of incorrect instructions as above.
Compensation for damage shall be made as follows:
- through recovery from the subject who caused damage by its own acting,
- through state guarantee or an SCP reserve in case when it is impossible to prove unambiguously who acted in an unauthorized or incorrect way, and when the present owner of the respective securities acquired them in good faith.
SCP Offices Network
Most instructions relating to changes in the register or to acquiring information enter the SCP in electronic form or are centralized.
Only certain requests can be applied through the SCP Offices network. Issuers may e.g., ask for statement from the issuer register, or for stopping the registration of changes of owners for the time needed for the preparation of general meeting.
Dematerialized securities owners are provided with a wide scale of services by the SCP Offices carrying out the individual transactions connected with keeping the owner accounts in accordance with the Securities Act.
In addition to its own Offices, the SCP also provides basic services at selected RM-System Branch Offices.
Further, the SCP Offices provide extensive services to securities dealers in case they do not possess on- line connection with the SCP central database.
Supplying Information
The SCP supplies information to users through information services in variants according to the needs of its users.
In addition to basic information obtained from its own registration the SCP supplies also other information services for the capital market, i.a. such as the publishing of information obtained from:
- Czech National Bank
- issuers
- securities owners.
Ways of Supplying Information:
Basic information directly through standard services at the individual SCP Offices
Information services relating to capital market — centrally through the SCP Information Centre (IS SCP), Prague 1, Rybná 14, Monday to Thursday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. and on Friday 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. information tel. +420 222 241 267-8, sales information +420 225 984 151, fax ;420 225 984 311, e-mail
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
.
Lists and informative materials are available to free inspection at the IS SCP. Copies thereof may be received in printed or electronic forms.
Inspection of information is free of charge, printed or electronic outputs are supplied according to the SCP Price List of Services.
Most information is also available at the internet address www.scp.cz.
Through ISB (Information System Broker).
Cooperation with Partners
The SCP cooperates in its own activities with a number of institutions, firms and companies. In the fields of state administration and state institutions, these are above all the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic, Courts, authorities acting in criminal proceedings, and Revenue Authorities (called Finance Offices in the Czech Republic). Important is the cooperation with the Czech National Bank. In particular, there is close and continuous co-operation with the subjects that provide services to participants in capital market, i.e., with public market organizers — the Prague Stock Exchange (and its settlement unit) and with the RM-System, and also with securities dealers and with investment companies and funds. The SCP is also developing systematically its foreign contacts and ties directed above all to central depositories of other countries, both the advanced countries or those in transformation; the SCP is one of the founding members of the Central and East European Central Depositories Association (CEECSDA) that associated these particular CSDs in the period 1998 – 2005. In January 2006 CEECSDA merged with its sister association ECSDA (European Central Securities Depositories Association) associating the same entities of historic EU member states. The SCP became a member of the new unified association (ECSDA) right at the time of the merger, having got the status of member-observer.
Security Policy Declaration
The Securities Centre (SCP) attaches great importance to the security of information entrusted to SCP for administration and handling. SCP perceives the protection of its own data as well as of its clients’ data as a comprehensive and controlled system of balanced measures aimed at the reasonable protection of all important assets.
SCP’s data protection is primarily based on the CSN ISO/IEC 17799:2001 standard on information technologies entitled ‘Procedures for the Management of Information Security’. In order to protect its own as well as entrusted information, SCP has built, maintains, and continues to develop an information security management system.
The information security management system is based on the objectives of SCP’s information security and on identified and assessed risks. The above system includes the determining of obligations and responsibilities along with the creation and observance of documented security principles and procedures that are regularly audited and reviewed. It also comprises a system controlling the observance of security principles and a system for security education of SCP’s employees. Strong emphasis is put on procedures to be applied in response to security events, and on solving critical situations.
The SCP management supports SCP’s defined security goals and strategy. This support was expressed by the approval of SCP’s General Security Policy.
The SCP’s General Security Policy is the basic document of the Securities Centre’s information security that specifies general and specific responsibilities, strategies, and the principles of information security. The purpose of the SCP’s General Security Policy is to allow the SCP management to determine unambiguous information security line, including the definition of intended approach to building above security structure. The SCP’s General Security Policy is the basis for subsequently producing guidelines and procedures that further elaborate information security principles. The policy is regularly maintained and updated.
In addition to its basic security document, i.e. the SCP’s General Security Policy, the SCP’s information security management system is based on the implementation of security requirements in the following areas:
- Organization security that defines responsibilities and SCP’s security management system
- Management and classification of assets that determine the method of identifying and evaluating assets, the method of classifying SCP’s information, and the method of handling that information volume
- Personnel security that defines the system of measures for disclosing SCP’s confidential information only to a specifically designated person
- Physical security and environment security that defines measures for preventing unauthorized access, damage, devaluation, destruction, or other interference with SCP’s information and/or the premises where the SCP’s facilities are situated
- Management of SCP’s communication and operation that regulates measures for the correct and safe operation of means for processing SCP’s information as well as of services and processes connected with it
- Access management that defines measures for protecting and controlling access to SCP’s information, services, and processes
- The development and maintenance of systems that define the system for developing and maintaining systems to introduce and promote information security during the entire service life of the applied systems from the design stage, development, and testing to the proper operation and maintenance
- Management of the continuity of activities that define the basic framework for preventing, and responding to, critical situations, including the determining of the roles, processes, structure of the documentation and responsibilities
- Making sure that security requirements are complied with, including detailed elaboration of specific procedures for ensuring the compliance of adopted measures with the legislation and security or technological procedures according to the accepted standards.
Information security is seen as an integral entity comprising individual security measures to secure the availability, integrity, and confidentiality of information that encompass the entire range of SCP’s activities.
|
Tasks of the SCP
