Wealthyhood x BoC Helps Cyprus Investors Recover Shares Held in CSE Special Account

Nicosia, Cyprus. The European investment app Wealthyhood, which runs in Cyprus as Wealthyhood x BoC in partnership with the Bank of Cyprus, has introduced an initiative to give investors renewed access to shares kept in the Special Account of the Cyprus Stock Exchange. Once the shares are moved, investors can view, sell or trade them through the app.

Transfers and outreach

The company said it had finished the first transfers for Cypriot investors, following requests received over the past months. It is now extending the process to every shareholder affected.

Wealthyhood has also approached companies listed on the Cyprus Stock Exchange (CSE) with a proposal for information campaigns. These would help shareholders find and reach holdings that may have lain dormant for years.

How the Special Account works

The initiative concerns shares recorded in the Special Account of the CSE’s Central Depository and Registry. Investors remain the legal owners of these securities, but trading is impossible until they are moved to a broker, a bank or another appointed custodian, referred to as a Participant.

Every investor on the CSE has an investor account, called a Merida in Greek, which is maintained by the Central Depository and Registry. Shares sit either with a Participant or, if none has been appointed, in the Special Account.

Demetra Holdings dividend

Wealthyhood said the problem became especially visible after the most recent dividend payment by Demetra Holdings. Figures from the CSE’s Central Depository and Registry show that only about 4,000 of the company’s almost 140,000 shareholders were paid through a brokerage firm. The rest were sent cheques by post.

The payment led more people to visit the CSE’s offices to check whether they still held shares bought years earlier.