Broadridge and Santander complete pilot proxy vote on blockchain

In collaboration with JP Morgan and Northern trust as the custodian banks, the pilot was conducted in March at Santander’s AGM.

By Joe Parsons

Broadridge and Santander have successfully used blockchain technology for investor voting at an annual general meeting (AGM).

The announcement comes one week after Broadridge attained US patent to further develop the technology for proxy voting.

In collaboration with JP Morgan and Northern trust as the custodian banks, the pilot was conducted in March at Santander’s AGM, with participation from Banco Santander Corporate Services as the issuer’s agent and the Spanish bank’s own blockchain lab.

The technology was used to produce a shadow digital register of the proxy voting taking place in the traditional model. The co-collaboration model was extended to additional global custodians participating in the AGM.

“In the case of Santander, having very fragmented capital, it is very important to ensure the participation by investors and shareholders, and this year using blockchain technology for the institutional vote has been a great help in terms of transparency and agility across the vote lifecycle,” said Sergio Gámez, global head of shareholders and investor relations, Banco Santander.

The pilot comes a year after Santander and Broadridge conducted a blockchain proof of concept in proxy voting, in collaboration with the two global custodians.

The project is also the latest venture by Northern Trust into using blockchain technology, which had launched a blockchain platform for private equity administration.

“Corporate Governance is a key focus for our asset servicing business and we are pleased to include one of our clients, Legal & General Investment Management, as a pilot investor in this important initiative as we extend our collaboration with Broadridge,” said Justin Chapman, global head of market advocacy and innovation research at Northern Trust.

“We are excited about the next phase in creating end-to-end vote transparency using blockchain as an enabler.”

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