Broadridge and Taiwan CSD Reach Proxy Voting Agreement

Technology vendor Broadridge Financial and the Taiwanese central securities depository have reached an agreement to establish direct links with the depository’s new electronic voting system for Taiwanese shareholder meetings.
By Janet Du Chenne(59204)
Technology vendor Broadridge Financial and the Taiwanese central securities depository have reached an agreement to establish direct links with the depository’s new electronic voting system for Taiwanese shareholder meetings.

Listed companies that elect to use the Taiwan Depository & Clearing Corporation’s (TDCC) StockVote system will be able to direct their voting into the system via Broadridge’s technology.

Direct voting into the system will significantly enhance the level of straight-through processing (STP) in the process, greatly improving voting deadlines for overseas investors and helping to eliminate multiple manual processes undertaken by local sub-custodian banks supporting Broadridge’s clients in the market today, says Broadridge.

StockVote was developed by TDCC to take advantage of recent regulatory changes in Taiwan that allow electronic voting.

By working with TDCC, Broadridge will bring the benefits of StockVote to foreign shareholders voting in Taiwan through Broadridge’s global proxy service for global custodians and their institutional investor clients. Currently, voting in Taiwan is predominately handled manually by local banks, often including mandatory meeting attendance. With the cooperation of the sub-custodians and global custodians, Broadridge will send overseas voting directly to StockVote through secure electronic means, thereby eliminating the manual handling of paper voting and meeting attendance by the local banks for participating Taiwanese issuers.

Sherman Lin, president of TDCC, says, “We have listened to the concerns of investors about shareholder voting in Taiwan, and have worked with our regulators to update local regulations to enable improvements to the process. We are pleased that the necessary regulatory changes are for the most part now complete, and local investors have been able to benefit from the improved process. We see working with Broadridge to bring these benefits to overseas investors as a critical next step to further improving corporate governance in Taiwan.”

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