This morning I will discuss what actions the Commission has taken to address this situation. The Commission believes that the number of lost securityholders compared to the total accounts held by transfer agents is small. While the proportion of lost accounts is small, the aggregate dollar amounts of the assets in these accounts can be significant. These figures must be put in perspective. We believe that most of these assets are held by entities that are not within the Commission's jurisdiction, and the amounts owing to lost securityholders by entities within our jurisdiction are a tiny fraction of the total amounts lost or abandoned.
Transfer agents serve as the custodians of securityholder records for issuers.
In this capacity, transfer agents frequently are responsible for disseminating shareholder communications and dividend and interest payments. For various reasons, transfer agents occasionally have outdated or incorrect addresses for some securityholders. Regardless of how securityholders get lost, however, the end result is the same - these shareholders do not receive dividend and interest payments to which they are entitled and, if the error is not corrected, may eventually lose the assets. In 1997 the Commission took action that it believed would be effective and prudent. Specifically, the Commission adopted new transfer agent rules and amended other rules in an effort to require uniform and cost-effective actions to locate lost securityholders and reunite them with their assets.