After the MF Global fiasco, I've spend countless hours online and on the phone with brokerages while researching my options for holding assets in Client name rather than in the broker's 'street name'. I've come out empty handed with a lot of closed doors, and 'sorry it's not possible nor efficient' or just simply clueless customer service reps. I would like to know if anyone can suggest a brokerage that allow direct book entry in customer name for fixed income government or corporate bonds? PS. I know about TreasuryDirect however this is for US citizens & residents only.
I also think that giving brokerage customers actual ownership of their assets via direct customer registration is the way to solve this systemic security problem. I hope IB will act as long as enough customers request it: http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/general/poll/index.php?sid=7549 Actually, they should offer it out of their own interest. They want to become the biggest broker in the world, and the only way to achieve that is to attract the large mutual and pension funds. But the pension funds still keep their money at the perceived safety of State Street or BNY even though they got raped there for decades on FX while IB offers this beautifully transparent and fair system to trade assets in multiple currencies. Therefore if IB can show these customers that their assets are safe no matter what, they are suddenly in the game for these large accounts.
Update: IB declined the "customer name instead of street name" suggestion today, just as it was gaining traction and appearing among the top 5 voted-for suggestions overall. "We have investigated this suggestion and the solution is not as simple as adding a new column in TWS. The amount of documentation, inventory tracking and inventory management tasks it creates makes implementation unworkable." http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/general/poll/index.php?sid=7549 Something tells me that the industry won't move unless we customers demand it.