Proxymity and transfer agent Computershare have partnered to support an industry-led pilot intended to deliver end-to-end vote confirmations to improve the transparency of voting for investors and issuers.
The pilot follows extensive discussions and cooperation between transfer agents such as Computershare and other members of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission-initiated industry working group which also aims to increase confidence in the beneficial shareholder voting process.
The industry working group is led jointly by the Society of Corporate Governance and the Council of Institutional Investors.
As part of a Fortune 500 pilot programme, industry parties have also agreed to conduct an early-stage entitlement reconciliation ‘sub-pilot’, enabling brokers to compare their records with a tabulator before the proxy vote.
Participating banks and brokers will seek to reconcile their investor clients’ aggregate voting positions to discrete voting entitlements that may be reflected directly and indirectly in the tabulator’s voting register.
The sub-pilot is being conducted with 20 companies during the 2022 AGM season.
Computershare is also working on a parallel pilot programme with Proxymity, a select group of issuers, custodians and institutional investors to simulate how end-to-end vote confirmations improve communications and transparency in the voting process.
Paul Conn, president of global capital markets at Computershare, says: “Computershare has always supported the development of voting protocols that can facilitate more efficient and effective voting by beneficial shareowners as well as provide greater transparency and confidence in the overall system.”
He adds: “We look forward to taking part in both pilots and will continue to push for positive improvements to the overall voting system, including the development of an automated, systematic approach to confirm changes to bank and broker voting entitlements after the record date for voting.”
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