Broadridge Financial Solutions and Santander Investment/Corporate Services in Spain have completed a pilot process for vote confirmation.
The pilot took place during 2013 proxy season and, together with Broadridge, it included the participation of six custodians that use Broadridge’s global proxy management service; Santander Investment in its role as registrar for Spanish share-issuing companies; and three participating issuers.
The pilot results proved that Santander Investment—in its role as a share registrar—accurately received a range of voting instructions through the legal chain of intermediaries including both global and sub-custodians, and was able to confirm that the shares voted were executed at the meeting.
Elizabeth Maiellano, senior director of product strategy for Broadridge, said: “End-to-end vote confirmation has become an important area of focus within capital markets, and presents an opportunity for greater integrity throughout the overall proxy process, which in turn will lead to improved investor confidence.”
“Wherever possible, Broadridge is looking for opportunities where its solutions and domain expertise can help raise the level of transparency and remove any ambiguity concerning vote statuses.”
Patricia Rosch, president of investor communication solutions international at Broadridge, added: “Broadridge has harnessed its relationships throughout the voting chain to help bring incremental transparency to the international markets. We are making plans to continue support for this pilot in the 2014 proxy season, in both Spain and other international markets.”
