Broadridge Financial Solutions has partnered with SLIB, a software vendor in electronic voting and security services based in France, to provide a joint, cross-border proxy voting solution for Shareholder Rights Directive (SRD II) compliance.
The solution, which will cover European shareholder meetings, will use Broadridge’s global proxy solution and includes a straight-through processing (STP) connection to SLIB’s Votaccess platform.
The partnership will enable the distribution of meeting agendas for European shareholder meetings, as well as process and count votes from French shareholders in a seamless service.
The Broadridge and SLIB solution will allow French retail intermediaries to offer proactive proxy voting services to shareholders where they can be notified of shareholder meetings for European companies and exercise voting rights seamlessly.
The solution is fully integrated into client workflows and will be available ahead of the 2021 proxy season, the first proxy season where SRD II compliance is compulsory.
SRD II went live on 4 September 2020 and is global in its scope, impacting any financial intermediary that holds or services European equities, irrespective of where the intermediary firm is located.
It applies to all types of financial intermediaries, including banks and brokers, wealth managers and central securities depositories (CSDs).
Philippe Cognet, CEO of SLIB, said: “This is a landmark initiative and brings together the leading provider of global proxy solutions in Broadridge, with our unique Votaccess platform, the electronic voting solution leader in the French market.”
Demi Derem, general manager of Broadridge’s international investor communication solutions, added: “We are delighted to partner with SLIB to help French intermediaries meet their regulatory obligations at such a vital time.”
“In an investor communications environment that has been dominated by heavily manual processes, this collaboration will help the French market realise significant efficiencies when it comes to vote processing across European shareholder meetings, and take the lead when it comes to compliance with SRD II,” Derem explained.
