A registered instrument is a form of property

Property

Property is any physical or intangible entity that is owned by a person or jointly by a group of people or a legal entity like a corporation...

, such as share

Share (finance)

A joint stock company divides its capital into units of equal denomination. Each unit is called a share. These units are offered for sale to raise capital. This is termed as issuing shares. A person who buys share/shares of the company is called a shareholder, and by acquiring share or shares in...

s or bonds

Bond (finance)

In finance, a bond is a debt security, in which the authorized issuer owes the holders a debt and, depending on the terms of the bond, is obliged to pay interest to use and/or to repay the principal at a later date, termed maturity...

, where records are kept of who owns the underlying property, or of the transactions involving transfer of ownership (for example, a company's share register). They may be contrasted with bearer instrument

Bearer instrument

A bearer instrument is a document that indicates that the owner of the document has title to property, such as shares or bonds. Bearer instruments differ from normal registered instruments, in that no records are kept of who owns the underlying property, or of the transactions involving transfer of...

s, where no records are kept of ownership or transfers.

In general, the legal situs

Situs

In law, the situs of property is where the property is treated as being located for legal purposes. This may be important when determining which laws apply to the property, since the situs of an object determines the lex situs, that is, the law applicable in the jurisdiction where the object is...

of the property is where the register is located.