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Custodians meaning

What does Custodians mean?
In legal practice, a custodian is the person or organisation with possession or practical control of documents, data or other records relevant to a matter. In disclosure/eDisclosure (England & Wales) and discovery (Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland), custodians are the sources from whom potentially relevant material is identified, preserved and collected. A custodian need not be the owner or author of the material, although authorship may overlap. The term is a descriptive expression used across multiple contexts rather than a generally defined statutory term, though specific usages exist (for example, “custodian trustee” under the Trustee Act 1925 (England & Wales) and charity legislation). Usage is broadly consistent across the UK and Ireland. Key features and practical significance: - Focus on possession, custody or control, including email accounts, devices and cloud repositories. - Duties typically include implementing legal holds, preserving metadata and maintaining a defensible chain of custody. - Custodian identification guides search strategy, collection scope, privilege review and disclosure. - Also relevant to regulatory investigations, internal investigations, data subject access requests (DSARs) and freedom of information requests (FOI).
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View the related News about Custodians

NEWS
UK: TheCityUK urges FCA to clarify AML, custody, market abuse and Consumer Duty rules for stablecoins, including trust arrangements and tokenised backing assets

TheCityUK consultation response On 4 August 2025, TheCityUK noted that the FCA’s consultation on rules for issuing stablecoins—digital tokens typically linked to fiat currencies such as the dollar keeping values steady—contains a significant omission on granular AML obligations. The regulator’s plan for overseeing the sector failed to set this out. The trade association said in its 4 August 2025 consultation response: although the FCA’s crypto roadmap signals that financial crime requirements will be tackled in a later consultation, it is vital to spell out how AML standards will apply to digital assets, including use cases unique to stablecoins (and custody). Custody refers to holding and protecting a client’s digital assets, yet custodians, including crypto exchanges, may face exposure to financial crime from within organisations or via hackers or cyber-attacks. TheCityUK said the FCA needs to make clear how its proposals for stablecoin issuance...

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View the related Practice Notes about Custodians

PRACTICE NOTES
Overview of statutory powers of trustees in England and Wales: sale, maintenance and advancement, investment, delegation (agents, nominees, custodians) and court authorisation

Source and availability Sources Trustees are granted specific statutory powers, chiefly under the Trustee Act 1925 (TA 1925) and the Trustee Act 2000 (TrA 2000), which define their authority...

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PRACTICE NOTES
Delegation of trustees’ functions: agents, nominees, custodians and powers of attorney under the Trustee Act 2000, Trustee Delegation Act 1999, Trustee Act 1925 and TOLATA 1996 (England and Wales)

Duty to act personally As a matter of principle, the basic rule is that a trustee must act in person because the settlor personally selected that individual for their specific skill or insight into the beneficiaries, and their affairs. The Trustee Delegation Act 1999 (TDA 1999) allows trustees, in defined situations, to delegate on an individual basis. The Trustee Act 2000 (TrA 2000) outlines the trustees’ default powers of collective delegation where the trust deed does not confer broader express powers. In essence, trustees may pass on most administrative tasks, but not dispositive powers. Agents, nominees and custodians Under the TrA 2000, the management of trust assets may now be entrusted to others, and trustees can appoint specified persons to serve as nominees for the trust. Collective delegation TrA 2000, Pt IV (ss 11–27) provides for trustees to delegate administrative powers and discretions. This operates subject to any limitation or exclusion imposed by the trust instrument, or by any enactment or subordinate legislation; any such...

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PRACTICE NOTES
Operational mechanics of payments on debt securities: CSDs, paying agents, bearer/registered forms, interest calculations, day count/business day conventions, currency cut-offs, redemptions and withholding tax (including FATCA)

This Practice Note sets out how issuers make payments on debt securities to investors. It also covers day count fractions and the conventions for business days in detail. Over time, the debt securities markets have fashioned an infrastructure that enables payments on the securities to pass from issuers to holders. It accommodates differing legal jurisdictions and time zones worldwide, supports multiple currencies, and aligns with a range of payment conventions as appropriate. The arrangements for paying amounts on debt securities operate within ordinary banking systems and, in parallel, outside them through central securities depositories ( CSDs ) and custodians. For further information on debt securities market infrastructure, see Practice Note: UK Debt securities—trading, settlement and custody for reference. Payments on global securities Debt securities can in principle be held in either global or definitive form (see Practice Notes: Form of debt securities—global securities and Form of debt securities—definitive securities), although, in practice, international market issues are now invariably held in global form...

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