Pursuant to the Securities Market Law (Act 18.627), entities whose object is to render custody, settlement and securities clearing services, are able to:
Receive deposits of physical securities and be responsible for their safeguard and custody until returned to  the entitled party. To all purposes, the physical securities in custody are considered fungible.
 
To keep under the issuers' names the registry of shares, negotiable bonds, other securities, shareholders books, and to record transfers, as well as clearing and settlement of deposited securities that are traded in the stock exchange and in the over the counter market.

Manage collections and interest payments, dividends, adjustments, and amortizations of securities in custody.
 
A Central Securities Depository (CSD) is an institution in charge of the registry and management of securities, enabling operations to be processed through annotations on accounts. While maintaining the issue accounts the CSD is in excellent conditions to carry out clearing and settlement tasks.

The main advantages are:
 
• Enhanced agility to perform security transfers.

• Reduction of custody resources: vaults, anti-fraud systems, etc.

• Market development promotion: security loans, use of securities as guarantees, repo market, etc.

• Shorter settlement cycle.

• Risk reduction through delivery against payment procedures.

 • Greater efficiency through economies of scale.
 
The Central Bank of Uruguay has developed the service of Central Securities Depository.
Since January 2nd, 2013, the CBU has assigned ISIN and CFI codes to the book-entry securities issued by the State and regulated by the national legislation. This task has been assigned to the Central Securities Depository, being this the only entity authorized to assign ISIN (ISO 6166) and CFI (ISO 10962) codes in the Uruguayan securities market. It also assigns the codes for public offering of securities issued by both public and private companies.