LONDON, May 6, 2021 (Newswire.com) – Proxymity, the leading digital investor communications platform backed by the world’s largest global custodians, and SLIB, the leading-edge software vendor in electronic voting and security services in France, announce their partnership and the connection between proxy voting solution, Proxymity Vote Connect, and SLIB’s market-leading Votaccess platform. The interoperability between the two platforms is now live.

– On May 3, 2021, Proxymity became the first overseas vendor to connect to the Votaccess platform, allowing global shareholders unprecedented access to the French market with SRDII compliance.

– The Proxymity and SLIB partnership offers real-time voting and transparent investor communications for overseas shareholders that wish to connect with French issuers.

– Investors using Votaccess and Proxymity now gain more than a week ahead of meetings to research and vote, facilitating better informed environmental, social and governance (ESG) decisions.

The connection between Proxymity Vote Connect and Votaccess guarantees that golden source meeting announcements direct from French issuers are instantly disseminated to intermediaries and investors globally, providing significant cost and governance benefits for the market and a solution to the SRDII requirements.

In addition, global votes are sent to issuers in real-time by Proxymity users. The mutual benefits of the improved market processing means:

– Investors directly benefit from an average of six additional days to research ahead of casting their votes. Investors then receive a confirmation that their votes have been received and counted.

– Issuers receive votes as soon as they are cast, allowing them an earlier sight of voting intentions than via any other market solution. Issuers can now determine which shareholders voted on which agenda points and benefit from the ability to communicate with their end-investor.

– Adherence to SRDII requirements.

– Ability to vote remotely which reduces the impact on the environment both due to minimised travel requirements and less paper use.

With the ever-increasing global focus on ESG, votes sent electronically via Proxymity Vote Connect and Votaccess removes the requirement to travel to meetings in person. Reduced need for paper and travel for voting has positive impacts on the environment, during and beyond the global COVID pandemic.

 

We are thrilled to have collaborated with Proxymity to make this solution available to our clients and customers. Overseas investors can now communicate with French issuers more efficiently than it has ever been possible. This creates better governance and removes perceived barriers to investment in the French market, enhancing French issuers’ attractiveness globally. We look forward to our ongoing relationship with Proxymity and future improvements and benefits that these new technologies will bring to the market.

PHILIPPE COGNET – CEO, SLIB

 

Benefits provided by the collaboration to French issuers have also been noted by AFTI, the National Association of French Issuers.

“For the first time, global investors have the ability to digitally communicate with French issuers,” said Dominique De Wit, former President of AFTI (Association Française des Professionnels des Titres). “This end-to-end connection is massively important to all companies in France and the investors that own shares. With the enforcement of SRDII regulations, it is clear that the industry needs to adopt modern technology, and the connection between SLIB’s Votaccess and Proxymity Vote Connect is a key indicator of the progress we need in France, the EU and globally.

It’s fantastic to be able to announce that our combined endeavours to connect Proxymity Vote Connect to SLIB’s Votaccess platform is live and in operation. France is a crucial international market for Proxymity, and it was a priority to ensure that we had SRDII compliance and full market coverage for this year’s proxy season, the first since SRDII has come into force. The benefits from an ESG point of view are clear to see and are poignant at a time when environmental, societal and governance issue are high on many people’s agendas.”

DEAN LITTLE – CEO & CO-FOUNDER, PROXYMITY