A bondholder register is the official record of who holds a bond issue in registered form. It lists each holder's name and the nominal amount held, and it is kept for the issuer by a registrar, a role described under registrar services. Legal title to a registered bond passes when the register is updated, and the issuer pays interest and principal to the persons shown on it at the record date. A bearer bond, by contrast, has no register; whoever holds the instrument is treated as owner.
In modern markets the register is often short. Bonds are usually represented by a global certificate registered in the name of a nominee for the central securities depository, and the interests of investors are recorded in the book-entry system of the depository and of custodians below it. The register therefore shows the legal holder, not the end investors. It is the debt counterpart of the share register.