Citi has partnered with Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) to create a high frequency connection that links their proxy voting platforms.
Citi’s digital proxy voting platform Proxymity will be connected to ISS’ ProxyExchange, its voting and research platform, to expedite the delivery of proxy ballot information.
Through the connection, for company meetings supported by Proxymity, users of ProxyExchange can utilise Citi’s technology and algorithm to access instant meeting notifications and extended voting deadlines.
The new features will help investors comply with the EU’s incoming Shareholder Rights Directive II.
“This collaboration shows how Proxymity can effectively be used without any change to the systems and workflows that ISS clients already know, like and trust,” said Dean Little, co-founder of Proxymity, Citi.
Citi rolled out its Proxymity platform in June last year, following a collaboration with global share registration and meeting services provider Computershare.
The platform has been used by some of Europe’s largest asset managers, including Aviva Investors, Legal & General, Standard Life Aberdeen and Robeco, which used Proxymity at four annual general meetings, including FTSE 100 companies.
The aim for Proxymity is to eliminate the number of intermediaries in the proxy voting process, enabling issuers to receive near real-time confirmation of investor votes after these are entered.
Proxymity was one of the first initiatives to be launched out of Citi’s London-based Citi D1OX programme. The platform was developed by employees of Citi’s custody and fund services business, along with technology from Citi’s Tel Aviv innovation lab.