Shareholders versus members

This is something that you need not know for the F4 exam!

However:

by definition a “member” is a person whose name appears in the Register of Members

if you and I jointly owned some shares but decided privately that only my name would appear on the register of members, that would make me both a shareholder and a member. But you would be only a shareholder

when I sell shares, I cease to be a shareholder. But until my sale is recorded in the Register, I continue to be a member

similarly, when I buy shares, I become a shareholder. But until that purchase transaction is recorded in the Register I am not yet a member

I can acquire shares in the name of a nominee. In that situation I am a shareholder, but not a member because it will be the nominee’s name that appears in the Register

there is such an animal as “bearer shares” (apparently common in the US but relatively unknown in the UK) These shares are owned by the person that happens to have possession of the bearer share certificate. And ownership is transferred simply by the bearer handing over that certificate to, say, you. And now that you have the certificate for those bearer shares, you are a shareholder. But at no time is the company able to discover the identity of its bearer shareholders, and clearly no Register of Members is maintained. So the company may have NO members but thousands of bearer shareholders

That should be sufficient to satisfy your enquiring mind!

OK?