NewsMV

SEC proposes to modernize transfer agent rules, brings blockchain-based recordkeeping and tokenized securities into scope

9/1/2026

A broad overhaul of transfer agent rules that have remained largely unchanged since the 1980s is in focus after the Securities and Exchange Commission put a formal modernization proposal on record.

The package extends the regulatory framework to cover blockchain-based recordkeeping, tokenized securities, and the increasingly automated infrastructure that now characterizes portions of market operations.

Transfer agents sit at the back end of securities settlement, maintaining ownership records and processing the transfers that happen when securities change hands.

The rules governing that function have gone largely unrevised since the 1980s, a period that predates distributed ledger technology and the tokenized financial instruments that have since moved into market infrastructure.