SEC transfer-agent overhaul puts tokenized securities on the rulemaking agenda

A proposal aimed at the market’s recordkeepers

The Securities and Exchange Commission proposed a broad revision of registered transfer-agent rules on September 1, bringing electronic recordkeeping and blockchain-based securities activity into an overhaul of a framework rooted in the paper-certificate era.

The agency said the package would amend existing rules and forms, remove one rule, and introduce new requirements. Chairman Paul Atkins described the effort as a response to how transfer agents now operate, including their use of electronic communications and blockchain technology for offerings and share transfers.

The announcement sets out a rulemaking proposal. It does not establish that the amendments have taken effect or that a particular tokenized security has received regulatory approval.

SourceSEC announcement · September 1, 2026

Wallet addresses enter the consultation

In her accompanying statement, Commissioner Hester Peirce focused on how tokenization could change the transfer agent’s role. These firms maintain issuers’ official ownership records and help issue, cancel, and transfer securities.

Peirce asked whether moving securities onchain would mean more work or less for transfer agents. She also raised a concrete identification question: should the rules keep requiring names and physical addresses, or allow alternatives such as email and digital wallet addresses? Those are questions for public feedback, not permissions already granted by the proposal.

Her statement also described proposed compliance policies and safeguards against improperly removing restrictive legends from shares, connecting modernization with efforts to address microcap fraud.

SourceHester Peirce’s statement and consultation questions

Reporting and investor safeguards remain central

Commissioner Mark Uyeda said the proposed revisions would improve reporting about transfer agents’ operations, including their handling of funds and securities and their turnaround performance. He also highlighted requirements involving lost securityholders, restrictive legends, and documented client agreements.

Uyeda placed the proposal against a long rulemaking history: the SEC issued a concept release in 2015, but a final modernization effort did not follow for more than a decade. He argued that electronic transactions, faster settlement, and distributed-ledger technology made an update increasingly urgent. Those assessments are the commissioner’s stated rationale for the proposal.

SourceMark Uyeda’s statement on the proposed amendments

What happens next

The SEC said comments would remain open for 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. That timing is linked to Federal Register publication, rather than automatically starting on the announcement date.

Peirce invited feedback on how future transfer-agent obligations should accommodate onchain trading and changes in the information collected about securityholders. The next substantive step is the public-comment and rulemaking process; the September announcement does not settle those design choices.

SourceHester Peirce’s statement and consultation questionsSEC announcement · September 1, 2026