Further extending its innovation program to support the highest standards of corporate governance in local and global markets, Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:BR) today announced the successful live running of its “market golden copy” event sourcing and proxy vote execution service for banks, brokers and wealth managers in Austria.
“We remain firmly focused on our commitment to innovate and transform the proxy voting eco-system, both globally and at a local market level, while reducing costs and risk to market intermediaries through our mutualised shared service model,” said Demi Derem, general manager of International Investor Communication Solutions, Broadridge. “Our investments for the Austrian market will deliver substantial improvements to operational efficiency with advanced straight-through processing for market participants and support incremental levels of shareholder democracy by empowering investor stewardship and related ESG strategies.”
The Austrian service is the latest operationally live addition to Broadridge’s fast-growing Direct Market Solutions (DMS) product suite that directly connects investors and issuers and improves voting deadlines for investors. DMS supports both institutional and retail investor voting in Austrian equities.
By providing a direct, automated service, Broadridge has significantly improved market deadlines – extending the voting window and research period for investors by an average of four days. Meeting and event notifications are electronically sourced from the market after which they are reconciled and forwarded to investors. Voting instructions received are provided digitally for physical submission at the meeting in accordance with national requirements. A confirmation of receipt of votes will be provided and displayed to investors confirming the vote was duly cast.
Broadridge announced its increased focus on driving local market efficiencies in 2021, with expanded coverage for proxy processing and extended voting windows as its core objectives. In 20 markets it has now met these fundamental objectives and remains on target to do the same for several more markets by 2023. These incremental local market innovations complement Broadridge’s existing leading global voting solutions that already provide investors 100% coverage across 100+ markets.
