@NBS @greyknight33 Small technicality, what customers/investors own is a contract for beneficial rights, not the shares themselves. And to be even more technical, BlackRock doesn't own the shares either; most stocks are owned by Cede & Co. So unless BlackRock specifically recalls shares and takes them out of the DTC/street name, Cede & Co (/DTC/prime brokers) own the shares and is who the SEC has a mandate to protect.