Broadridge and Santander collaborate on proxy voting for Spanish market

New service aims to improve voting ecosystem in response to arrival of Shareholders Rights Directive II.

By Richard Schwartz

Broadridge Financial Solutions has launched a new issuer “golden copy” event notification and vote execution service for the Spanish market.  

It is the latest market-ready extension to Broadridge’s growing Direct Market Solutions (DMS) product suite, which focuses on streamlining traditional voting processes by directly connecting investors and issuers.  

The service, delivered in collaboration with Santander Investment, provides a fully automated solution with market-wide coverage and is designed to improve market error rates, expand voting windows and facilitate vote confirmations.  

“This is the latest in our ongoing series of local market innovations that focus on industry leading partnerships aimed at improving the overall voting ecosystem,” said Demi Derem, general manager, international investor communication solutions at Broadridge. 

The new functionality will enable custody banks, brokers and wealth managers operating in Spain to enhance their service offering to their underlying clients while reducing their operating costs. The collaboration will also allow all Spanish financial intermediaries to obtain a one-stop-shop SRD II compliance solution without the need for major integration or change of operating models.  

 “Our collaboration with Broadridge will transform the voting process for the Spanish market through a more direct end-to-end chain of communications between issuers and investors,” said Luis Antonio Pérez, executive director of corporate trust services, Santander Investment. “By removing avoidable steps from the overall lifecycle, the proxy process will become more efficient and less prone to the risks associated with multiple break points. 

Broadridge recently announced its expanded coverage for proxy processing and extended voting windows for 20 sub-custody markets in 2021, with more markets to follow in 2022 and 2023.  

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