Santander and Broadridge Financial Solutions have completed a first practical use of blockchain for investor voting.
The bank and the Global FinTech leader said the implementation of a solution that employs blockchain technology enhances global proxy vote transparency and increases operational efficiency, security and analytics. This is beneficial for investors, issuers, agent banks and custodian banks.
Santander and Broadridge, in collaboration with J.P. Morgan and Northern Trust as custodian banks, conducted the pilot in March for Santander’s annual general meeting (AGM). The pilot was run in parallel to the AGM, with blockchain being utilized to produce a “shadow” digital register of the proxy voting taking place in the traditional model.
Institutional investors had the opportunity during the last AGM to see how their votes could be counted and confirmed much more quickly (it will be possible to do this instantly) thanks to the blockchain technology, instead of having to wait two weeks in a process that includes manual activity by different intermediaries. The participation for the new platform amounted to 21% of the total that participated in the AGM.
The ability to confirm votes to final investors anticipates the updated European Directive on Shareholder Rights that will come into force in June 2019, which will require sharing information among intermediaries on the same business day.
Patricia Rosch, president of Investor Communication Solutions, International at Broadridge, said: “The successful completion of a second pilot along with the next phase of our blockchain-based proxy voting solution demonstrates Broadridge’s continued commitment to developing innovative technology solutions in the re-imagination and improvement of global proxy to help our clients get ahead of today’s challenges.
“As a key innovator in capital markets and a leader in proxy, we continue to implement the newest technologies such as blockchain to improve corporate governance and address the latest regulatory requirements such as the Shareholder Rights Directive.”
Earlier this year, Broadridge Financial Solutions purchased FundAssist Limited, a regulatory, marketing and sales solutions service provider. Based in Dublin, Ireland, FundAssist extends Broadridge’s governance and communications business and brings a suite of capabilities to enable the composition, management and distribution of digitised regulatory and disclosure documents for global fund managers distributing in Europe.
Copyright © 2018 RegTech Analyst
Copyright © 2018 RegTech Analyst
