Cecabank has appointed Broadridge to provide its global proxy voting solution to broaden its services related to new requirements under the Shareholders Rights Directive (SRD II).
Broadridge’s solution is already live and is providing Cecabank’s domestic and cross-border institutional clients with a fully automated global proxy voting service.
Cecabank’s move to adopt Broadridge’s solution comes as the Spanish government is due to sign off its transposition to make SRD II a compulsory legal requirement in Spain.
SRD II aims to improve relations between shareholders and listed companies at the European level, making them more fluid, transparent and efficient.
The directive allows more transparency into shareholders, regulates the transmission of information between the company and shareholders, and encourages the involvement of shareholders in the corporate governance of listed companies, facilitating the exercise of their voting rights.
It is global in scope and applies to all types of financial intermediaries, including banks and brokers, wealth managers and central securities depositories (CSDs) that trade or hold European equities.
Luis Francisco Jiménez Aragón, head of securities custody and settlement at Cecabank, says: “We are very well-prepared and already in live operation, ahead of the Spanish authorities’ transposition deadline, and helping to drive higher standards of governance and transparency for our clients and other constituents throughout the proxy voting lifecycle.”
Demi Derem, head of Broadridge’s international bank broker dealer communication solutions, adds: “In selecting Broadridge’s end-to-end global proxy solution, Cecabank is better prepared to meet the upcoming SRD II regulatory transposition in Spain and further strengthen its position as a leading Spanish securities services bank.”
Earlier in January, Broadridge launched a new platform that provides an open data-feed of proxy voting data and analytics.
The new platform, Broadridge Proxy Policies & Insights Data, will leverage machine learning services from Amazon Web Services.
