The process that eliminates physical records (certificates or documents) of title indicating ownership of financial assets, such as bonds and stocks.  Examples of dematerialised records of financial assets include existence on accounting records (electronic balances).

In finance and financial law, dematerialisation entails the substitution of paper-form securities by book-entry or digital securities. The move into an electronic format aims to overcome the practical difficulties or hardships of keeping and maintaining physical copies of financial assets (particularly securities).

The key benefits of dematerialisation include convenience, safety, easy fund transfer, nomination facility (granting the right to others to operate a dematerialised account on behalf of its owner), and so on.

Dematerialisation is known for short as DEMAT.