securities
noun · Wertpapiere
Wertpapiere when securities are instruments, § 2 WpHG, Sicherheiten when security is collateral, and the plural crossing is the classic wreck, transferable securities arriving as übertragbare Sicherheiten. § 232 BGB shows both worlds meeting in one sentence, security can be provided by depositing Wertpapiere.
Which translation, when
Why
One English root serves two German worlds that never share vocabulary. Instruments are Wertpapiere, the regulatory definition sits in § 2 Abs. 1 WpHG, they live in a Wertpapierdepot, they are listed, transferred, pledged. Collateral is Sicherheit, singular by instinct, the loan is secured, die Sicherheit bestellt, and the statutory menu of Sicherheitsleistung, § 232 BGB, runs from deposited money and Wertpapiere through pledges to the fallback surety of Abs. 2, which is the one place where the two worlds legitimately touch, instruments serving as collateral. The everyday safety sense, Datensicherheit, translates itself. The crossing error is the plural one, securities rendered as Sicherheiten dissolves a portfolio into its function, and because both words are perfectly native German, the swap survives every proofread that is not looking for it.
Typical mistakes
- Übertragbare Sicherheiten for transferable securities pawns the portfolio, the instruments are Wertpapiere, § 2 Abs. 1 WpHG, and the swap survives proofreading because both words are native.
- Securities account is das Wertpapierdepot, ein Sicherheitenkonto is where collateral sits, and the wrong compound sends custody to the wrong department.
- The singular usually behaves, security for the loan is die Sicherheit, and § 232 BGB even lets the two meet, Sicherheitsleistung by depositing Wertpapiere, so context, not reflex, must pick the word.
What matters
Custody and collateral schedules collide in one word: the pledged securities shall be transferred to the account reads die verpfändeten Wertpapiere werden auf das Depot übertragen, instruments that happen to serve as collateral. The Sicherheiten version dissolves the instruments into their function, and the settlement team receives a schedule it cannot book.
What the machine misses
Securities collapses into Sicherheiten in machine output often enough to matter, instruments dissolving into collateral, and both words are so native that nobody stumbles on the page. The regulatory world keeps the words strictly apart, Wertpapiere in the Depot, Sicherheiten behind the loan, and a portfolio schedule translated as a pledge list sends the reader looking for a secured debt that never existed.
Examples
| transferable securities | übertragbare Wertpapiere |
| securities account | das Wertpapierdepot |
| security for the loan | die Sicherheit für das Darlehen |
| listed securities | börsennotierte Wertpapiere |