The SWIFT Board of Directors has approved the development of a SWIFTNet based proxy voting solution, based on the new UNIFI or ISO 20022 protocol.
A SWIFT working group has defined the scope of the project as to standardize and register with ISO the key business elements of the proxy voting process between issuers and beneficial owners. The main goals – to cut costs, increase automation, and increase domestic and cross-border voting – are familiar.
In the initial phase of the project, SWIFT will develop messages for meeting notifications; vote registration, instruction and confirmation; results dissemination; and confirmation of vote execution.
The development of messages for ancillary processes such as resolution proposals, share blocking and un-blocking, and holding position information will be undertaken in a second phase.
A pilot phase is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2006.