Advocacy Update: CIRI Advocates for Greater Transparency in the Proxy Voting Process

On November 14, 2013, CIRI submitted comments to the CSA and issued a news release on Consultation Paper 54-401: Review of the Proxy Voting Infrastructure.

CIRI shares the CSA's view that accurate and transparent shareholder voting is fundamental to the quality and integrity of the capital markets. Issuers put forward important proposals for shareholders to vote upon and both parties rely on the proxy voting system to ensure that those votes are counted accurately and efficiently.

In the submission, CIRI proposed the following:

1. Institute appropriate regulation of the proxy voting infrastructure processes including vote reconciliation and end-to-end vote confirmation.
2. In cases of share lending, ensure that the voting power resides with the shareholder who has the economic interest in those shares.
3. Conduct further research into the impact the OBO-NOBO concept has on the transparency and integrity of the proxy voting infrastructure. Consideration should be given to making NOBO the default option when establishing brokerage customer accounts and that shareholders with OBO status be subject to an additional fee.

CIRI believes that appropriate, targeted regulation of the proxy voting infrastructure would improve the transparency and accuracy of the shareholder vote, resulting in greater confidence and integrity in the Canadian capital markets.

To read the full submission, click here.

To read the news release, click here.

If you have any questions about this issue, or CIRI’s comments, please contact Yvette Lokker.