Before a security can obtain quotation in the Official List, it has to possess certain characteristics, and its sponsors have to conform to certain formalities. The idea of quotation is not to enable those interested in the loan or company to sell the securities; quotation is for the benefit of the public; indeed, before quotation is granted, at least two-thirds of the securities issued must have been allotted to the public as distinct from vendors and others. The formalities to be observed resemble in many respects those imposed in the case of the granting of a special settlement. The loan or company has to be of sufficient magnitude and importance. Such documents as the prospectus, which must have been publicly advertised, the articles of association, which are the rules of the company, the allotment book, showing the extent to which the securities have been publicly issued, the banker's pass-book, certified copies of contracts and concessions, have all to be deposited. It has to be stated that the certificates or bonds are ready for delivery, and that the purchase of the properties has been completed. These are roughly the requirements, and a broker has to be appointed in connection with the loan or company authorised and ready to give full information in answer to the inquiries of the Committee. It will be noted that in considering applications for quotation in its Official List the Committee attaches importance to the production of a publicly issued prospectus. This is natural, for the prospectus is, as it were, the written guarantee of those offering the securities for sale to those who subscribe money for them. In spite of the requirement, however, the number of new companies floated without the issue of a prospectus is far greater now than it was before the Companies Act of 1900 was passed. Under the old law, the regulations as to the information which a prospectus should impart were far less stringent than they are at present, and company promoters, who then had no objection to issuing prospectuses, seem anxious to avoid their issue now. The directors of a certain class of company find it inconvenient to bind themselves down in writing to statements sufficiently attractive to induce subscriptions, and yet sufficiently true to stand investigation should questions subsequently arise. Thus even at the risk of sacrificing the possibility of quotation in the Official List, they prefer to issue no prospectus at all. Some of them in its place publish a statement which is described as being not a prospectus, and as being issued for public information only, not to invite subscriptions. Such a statement, of course, may contain all that is in favour of the company of whose shares it is sought to dispose, and yet need not contain particulars as to contracts and the like, which the law requires in a prospectus, and with which it is essential the subscriber should be acquainted.