UK to end paper shares after 400 years to boost city’s appeal

The UK will scrap paper stock certificates to cut costs for companies, as Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves seeks to fully digitize Britain’s capital markets in a bid to boost the competitiveness of the City.

The ending of paper shares, an idea long called for by many FTSE 100 companies because of the administrative cost of issuing physical certificates and maintaining separate paper-based share registers, is due to be announced by Reeves at her Mansion House speech on Tuesday, according to people familiar with the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Abolishing paper shares, which are still held by tens of thousands of retail investors in the UK’s biggest listed companies, was one of the key recommendations of a government-commissioned report into digitising UK capital markets led by Aberdeen Group Plc Chairman Douglas Flint in 2023. More than 400 years after joint-stock companies came to Britain, it’s one of a shrinking number of major global markets where physical certificates are still used.

Reeves is due to characterise the move as making UK finance more modern and efficient, part of her drive to boost investment and growth in Britain.

Under Reeves’ plans, paper-based share registers will be replaced with digital registers, with a long-term aim of all shares being held and managed on a single system, one of the people familiar said.

The shares plan comes against the backdrop of London’s shrinking stock market. Several marquee British businesses have decided to hold their initial public offerings in New York, while a stream of already-listed companies have been shifting their stock listings to other exchanges.

Reeves has been trying to address the situation with moves such as encouraging pension funds to allocate more of their assets to British equities, and encouraging regulators to take a more pro-growth stance. In the speech at Mansion House, she’s also expected to announce a cut to the £20 000 cash limit on tax-free individual savings accounts, in a bid to nudge people to put more money into equities.

© 2025 Bloomberg

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