A system and method are provided for enabling two or more different entities to perform actions on assets including validating the assets and authorizing the assets. The assets may include financial instruments, real estate documents, bonds, share certificates, and/or traveler' s cheques. Client terminals are coupled to a plurality of servers and global servers to receive updates regarding the status of the assets. The invention enables assets to be validated in real-time in order to reduce fraud, such as duplicate assets, false assets or a counterfeit asset.