Broadridge Financial Solutions has partnered SLIB, a software vendor focused on electronic voting and security services based in France, to offer a joint, cross-border proxy voting solution for Shareholder Rights Directive II (SRD II) compliance, covering European shareholder meetings.Designed specifically for French intermediaries, including the retail sector, the fully automated, end-to-end solution will leverage Broadridge’s industry-leading Global Proxy solution and includes an STP connection to SLIB’s Votaccess, the leading electronic voting platform in France, which manages in excess of 80 per cent of CAC 40 companies’ General Meetings.
This Broadridge-SLIB alliance 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, unique to the French market.
“We are delighted to partner with SLIB to help French intermediaries meet their regulatory obligations at such a vital time,” says Demi Derem, general manager of Broadridge’s International Investor Communication Solutions. “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.”
The Broadridge and SLIB solution will for the first time 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.
“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,” says Philippe Cognet, CEO, SLIB. “With deep expertise and robust investor communications governance models with the main banking actors, Broadridge represents an ideal partner to bring this innovative solution to market.”
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 depositaries (CSDs).
Broadridge has received unprecedented international demand for its multi-segment, award-winning SRD II solution and has already carried out over 100 live client implementations, with a further 100-plus now underway. These clients, which are based both within and outside of Europe, include both retail- and institutional-focused firms, encompassing multiple tier-one banks, brokers and wealth managers.
