On 1 July 2015, SVWG published a discussion paper covering proxy voting and potential progress in transparency. The paper suggests improvements to address the lack of transparency and trust in relation to proxy voting within the current regime. A number of these suggestions include:

  • making CREST voting available for shareholders of issuers with CREST;
  • implementing a standard approach for registrars to deal with split overvoted accounts; and
  • ensuring that investors publicly disclose their voting record on a regular basis.

The paper did not favour the introduction of a standalone electronic voting system, and it considered that its costs would be high and that the system would be out of date before it would be fully implemented.

The paper is available here:

http://uk.practicallaw.com/cs/Satellite?blobcol=urldata&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobkey=id&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=1247755323916&ssbinary=true

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