Broadridge and SLIB joint SRD II proxy voting solution for the French market

By Joy Dumasia

Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. and SLIB, a leading-edge software vendor in electronic voting and securities services based in France, have announced the live operational running of their joint cross-border proxy voting solution. Unique in the French market, the solution enables intermediaries including banks, brokers and wealth managers serving France-based investors to meet their new, mandatory obligations to support voting for European shareholder meetings under the updated Shareholder Rights Directive (SRDII).

Demi Derem, General Manager of Broadridge’s International Investor Communication Solutions, said: “The collaboration with SLIB, together with l’Association Française des Professionnels des Titres (AFTI), the French industry association, has been meticulously designed and implemented by experienced and deeply knowledgeable experts from all relevant stakeholders. Financial Intermediaries in France can now meet their regulatory obligation to provide cross-border electronic meeting notifications and end-to-end proxy voting services to their French investors while helping to transform corporate governance standards across Europe through increased levels of shareholder democracy and stewardship.”

Philippe Cognet, CEO of SLIB, said: “SRDII has mandated a pronounced change in European corporate governance practices, requiring careful planning at a market level to enable the compliance of all actors. By partnering with Broadridge, we have combined their market-leading global proxy voting infrastructure with our best-in-class Votaccess platform (used by the majority of listed companies) for French intermediaries and investors, resulting in a robust, market-ready operational solution that delivers significantly higher rates of cross-border processing efficiency and governance automation.”

Recently, IBS Intelligence reported that Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc., a global FinTech leader, has announced it has delivered its full suite of Shareholder Rights Directive (SRD II) compliance investor communication solutions to Northern Trust. These solutions are in use across Northern Trust’s global asset servicing business.