Stock Transfer Act, 1963

Prohibition of circulation of blank transfers.

4.—(1) Where a transfer in blank relating to registered securities has been delivered, pursuant to a sale of those securities, to or to the order of the purchaser or any person acting on his behalf, any person who in the State parts with possession of that transfer, or who removes it or causes or permits it to be removed from the State, before it has been duly completed shall, as well as being liable for the stamp duty chargeable in respect of that transfer, be liable to a penalty of one hundred pounds, and the penalty shall be recoverable in the same manner as if it were part of the duty.

(2) For the purposes of this section “transfer in blank” means a transfer in which the name of the transferee has not been inserted, and a transfer shall be treated as duly completed if, and only if, the name of the transferee is inserted therein, being the name of—

(a) the purchaser of the securities under the sale;

(b) a person entitled to a charge upon the securities for money lent to that purchaser;

(c) a nominee holding as a bare trustee for that purchaser or for any such person as is mentioned in paragraph (b) of this subsection; or

(d) a person acting as the agent of that purchaser for the purposes of the sale.

(3) The foregoing provisions of this section shall apply in relation to a transfer delivered by way of or pursuant to a voluntary disposition inter vivos, being a transfer to which section 74 of the Finance (1909-10) Act, 1910 , applies, as they apply in relation to a transfer delivered pursuant to a sale, and as if for any reference to the purchaser there were substituted a reference to the person (in this section referred to as the donee) to whom the disposition is made.

(4) References in this section to the purchaser or donee of any registered securities include references to any person to whom the rights of the purchaser or donee are transmitted by operation of law; and in relation to a transfer chargeable with duty in accordance with subsection (4) or subsection (5) of section 58 of the Stamp Act, 1891, references in this section to the purchaser and a sale shall be construed as references to the sub-purchaser and a sub-sale.