Citi and Computershare Collaborate to Launch Innovative Digital Platform for Proxy Voting
June 28 2018 - 11:09AM
Business Wire
Proxymity transforms proxy voting by making the
process more efficient, accurate and transparent
Platform on track to support up to 200 meetings
in the UK throughout 2018
Following the successful production pilot, Citi (NYSE: C) has
rolled out ProxymitySM, an innovative digital proxy voting platform
developed through Citi’s D10XSM program. As a result of the
collaboration between Citi and Computershare, the global market
leader in share registration and meeting services, both
organisations are able to deliver meaningful and measurable
voting-related benefits to institutional investors and public
companies. Proxymity has been successfully used by key investors at
17 shareholder meetings in the UK, 8 of which were
for FTSE100 companies, and the platform is on track to support up
to 200 meetings in the UK throughout 2018.
By using a core algorithm to streamline the flow of information
between intermediaries, Proxymity maximises the accuracy and
transparency of the current shareholder meeting voting ecosystem.
The platform removes inefficiencies by directly connecting the
issuers to the investors.
“Our corporate issuer clients have long sought ways to more
efficiently identify and communicate with their institutional
investors whose investments are often held by nominees and
custodians. Through this effective collaboration with Citi, issuers
and institutional investors will now in practice both benefit from
investors having more time to digest, communicate and convey voting
intentions on important matters that are decided at shareholder
meetings,” said Paul Conn, President of Global Capital
Markets at Computershare.
Through the pioneering solution, issuers can receive real-time
confirmation of investor votes as soon as these are entered onto
the platform, from the moment the shareholder meeting has been
announced through to the deadline. Investors benefit from improved
voting cut-off dates in comparison to current practices, with up to
nine additional days to research the meeting and cast their votes
through the platform; which in addition provides post-meeting vote
confirmation to investors.
“Enhancing transparency and efficiency in the proxy voting chain
is of utmost importance to ensure high quality and accuracy of our
voting activities. Proxymity’s ability to verify the votes cast at
shareholder meetings improves the effectiveness of our voting
activities and allows real-time engagement between issuers and
investors,” said Carola van Lamoen, Head of Active Ownership at
Robeco. “We will continue to support initiatives such as
Proxymity as voting along with our engagement activities can
influence companies to generate a positive impact and added value
for our clients.”
Proxymity is one of the first initiatives to launch from Citi’s
D10X program, an internal strategic growth model that enables
employees to take new business ideas from concept to launch. The
platform was developed by employees of Citi’s Custody and Fund
Services business. Employees participating in Citi’s D10X program
are coached through a rigorous validation process led by Citi
Ventures and supported by Citi’s innovation labs globally. The
underlying Proxymity technology was developed at the Citi
Innovation Lab in Tel Aviv.
“As Proxymity continues to gain momentum, we are pleased to
support a growing number of issuers and investors on the platform
and meet users’ requirements for a simpler, faster and more
transparent way of performing proxy voting,” said Jonathan
Smalley, co-founder of the ProxymitySM
Platform, Citi. “We look forward to working with
Computershare and other key stakeholders across the proxy voting
ecosystem to deliver further efficiency and bring additional
markets onto the platform.”
###
About ProxymitySM
Provided by Citi’s Custody and Fund services business,
ProxymitySM is a pioneering, end-to-end proxy voting platform that
directly connects the issuer and investor, yielding a more
efficient, accurate and transparent voting process. Proxymity is an
enterprise-ready solution that provides real-time transparency,
allowing instant amendment of instructions and much-sought-after
confirmation that votes have been recorded at shareholder meetings.
Eliminating manual input and interpretation of data, Proxymity
helps remove potential data corruption and reduces risk for all
participants. Proxymity, founded by Citi employees, Dean Little and
Jonathan Smalley through Citi’s D10XSM program, was named “Best
Innovation in Service Provision” by Global Custodian. For more
information, visit www.proxymity.io
About Citi
Citi, the leading global bank, has approximately 200 million
customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries and
jurisdictions. Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments
and institutions with a broad range of financial products and
services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and
investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services, and
wealth management.
Additional information may be found
at www.citigroup.com | Twitter: @Citi |
YouTube: www.youtube.com/citi |
Blog: http://blog.citigroup.com |
Facebook: www.facebook.com/citi |
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/citi
About Computershare Limited (CPU)
Computershare (ASX: CPU) is a global market leader in transfer
agency and share registration, employee equity plans, mortgage
servicing, proxy solicitation and stakeholder communications.
Computershare also specialise in corporate trust, bankruptcy, class
action and a range of other diversified financial and governance
services. Founded in 1978, Computershare is renowned for its
expertise in high integrity data management, high volume
transaction processing and reconciliations, payments and
stakeholder engagement. Many of the world’s leading organisations
use their services to streamline and maximise the value of
relationships with their investors, employees, creditors and
customers. Computershare is represented in all major financial
markets and has over 16,000 employees worldwide.
For more information, visit www.computershare.com.
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7508-9355orElizabeth Kellyelizabeth.kelly@citi.com+1 (212)
559-2477orComputershareJoe
Williamsjoe.williams@computershare.co.uk+44 (0)370 702 0003
extension 1520+44 (0)7468 715 590
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