CREST – Certificates Registry for Electronic Share Transfer - is the electronic system for holding financial securities. They settle transactions in the UK, and also handle Irish stocks. CREST allows share and bondholders to store assets in electronic form, instead of holding paper certificates, and it also offers same-day clearing for securities transactions.
CREST is now part of Euroclear, one of the two principle securities clearing and settlement houses for the European financial markets. Euroclear offers a Central Securities Depository for the UK and Irish markets based on the CREST system.
