[3] DTC annually settles transactions worth hundreds of trillions of dollars, processes hundreds of millions of book-entry deliveries, and custodies millions of securities issues worth tens of trillions of dollars issued in the United States and over 100 other countries.

DTC manages book-entry securities entitlement transfers for brokerage houses and maintains custody of global (jumbo) stock certificates and other stock certificates through its affiliated partnership nominee, Cede and Company.

The mechanisms brokers used to transfer securities and keep records relied heavily on pen and paper.

[5] In the late 1960s, with an unprecedented surge in trading leading to volumes of nearly 15 million shares a day on the NYSE in April 1968 (as opposed to 5 million a day just three years earlier, which at the time had been considered overwhelming), the paperwork burden became enormous.

[6][7] Stock certificates were left for weeks piled haphazardly on any level surface, including filing cabinets and tables.

NYSE President Robert W. Haack promised: "We are going to automate the stock certificate out of business by substituting a punch card.

[11] The CCS transferred securities electronically, eliminating their physical handling for settlement purposes, and kept track of the total number of shares held by NYSE members.

Haack labeled it "top priority", $5 million was spent on it,[13] and its goal was to eliminate up to 75% of the physical handling of stock certificates traded between brokers.

[7] By January 1969, it was transferring 10,000 shares per day, and plans were made for it to be handling broker-to-broker transactions in 1,300 issues by March 1969.

It was headed by William (Bill) T. Dentzer Jr., a former U.S. intelligence community member and New York State Banking Superintendent.

BASIC and the SEC saw this indirect holding system as a "temporary measure", on the way to a "certificateless society".

Today, all physical shares of paper stock certificates are held by a separate entity, Cede and Company.

Instead, DTC designates Cede and Company as their main custodial nominee pursuant to New York's Uniform Commercial Code, Article 8: Investment Securities.

In 2007, DTC settled transactions worth $513 trillion, and processed 325 million book-entry deliveries.

Parties that may submit the questionnaire include one of the following: Lead Manager/Underwriter, Issuer's financial advisor or the DTC Participant clearing the transaction for its correspondent.

The Lead Manager/ Underwriter must ensure that DTC's Underwriting Department receives the issue's offering document (e.g., prospectus, offering memorandum, official statement) and the CUSIP numbers assigned to the issue within the time frames outlined in DTC's Operational Arrangements.