Paperless Around the World

Markets in many countries around the world no longer issue paper securities at all. China, for example, the place where paper was invented, no longer relies on paper securities at all. As a result, stock theft and forgery are not much of a problem in China.

In Europe, Denmark and France began the move to paperless, electronic securities 20 years ago, and markets in many other countries have followed. Some, like New Zealand, won't even let a company list its stock on the exchange if it insists on issuing paper certificates.

Although most securities in the United States are no longer issued on paper, many companies still issue their common equity on paper certificates. That's true in other markets as well, such as Japan's, although even in Japan a deadline of 2009 has been set for the phasing out of paper securities.

Here's a partial but by no means complete list of markets that no longer use paper securities.