JPMorgan Investor Services announced today it has enhanced its global proxy voting service for institutional investors.
It looks a timely move. On both sides of the Atlantic, official enthusiasm for “corporate governance” has made being seen to vote stock far more important. “With the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Securities and Exchange Commission’s recent decision requiring mutual funds to disclose proxy votes and related voting policies, institutional investors are increasingly focused on proxy voting and corporate governance,” says JP Morgan.
JPMorgan is now offering clients a round-the-clock web portal for agenda notifications and voting instructions, online standing instruction maintenance, online vote activity reporting, online access to complementary issuer driven information.
The enhanced service encompasses the electronic voting system launched by the Euroclear-owned UK CSD, CREST, last month. The JP Morgan service will equip CREST users with an electronic audit trail of meeting notifications and vote instructions from the issuer’s agent to the institutional investor.
“JPMorgan is dedicated to providing our clients with the value-added tools they need to take an active role in corporate governance and complete their due diligence,” says Jon M. Divis, Securities Processing Executive, JPMorgan Investor Services. “The firm’s new proxy services give clients information at their fingertips and enable them to effectively manage their proxy voting responsibilities online.”