MADRID and LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., May
17, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Banco Santander, S.A.
(BME:SAN) and Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:BR), a
global fintech leader, have completed a first practical use of
blockchain for investor voting at an annual general meeting (AGM).
The implementation of a solution that employs blockchain technology
enhances global proxy vote transparency and increases operational
efficiency, security and analytics, which is beneficial for
investors, issuers, agent banks and custodian banks.
Santander and Broadridge, in collaboration with J.P. Morgan and
Northern Trust as custodian banks, conducted the pilot on
March 23rd for Santander's
annual general meeting (AGM), with participation from Banco
Santander Corporate Services as the issuer's agent and Santander's
blockchain lab. The pilot was run in parallel to the AGM, with
blockchain being utilized to produce a "shadow" digital register of
the proxy voting taking place in the traditional model. The
co-collaboration model was extended to additional global custodians
participating during the Santander AGM.
Santander, which is the largest bank in the euro zone by market
capitalization, has over four million shareholders and 60.7% of the
capital belongs to institutional investors. The institutional
investors had the opportunity during the last AGM to see how their
votes could be counted and confirmed much more quickly (it will be
possible to do this instantly) thanks to the blockchain technology,
instead of having to wait two weeks in a process that includes
manual activity by different intermediaries. The participation for
the new platform amounted to 21% of the total that participated in
the AGM. This could also help motivation to vote, which improves
corporate democracy. Santander's quorum in the last AGM hit a
record of 64.55% of the shareholders. This new technology is also a
business opportunity for the Corporate Services of Santander Global
Corporate Banking, the wholesale division of the bank, which acts
as issuer's agent in AGMs of more than 50 large clients.
The ability to confirm votes to final investors anticipates the
updated European Directive on Shareholder Rights that will come
into force in June 2019, which will
require sharing information among intermediaries on the same
business day.
Santander and Broadridge conducted a proof of concept
approximately one year ago in a closed blockchain environment, in
collaboration with J.P. Morgan and Northern Trust. Since then,
Broadridge has continued to innovate by establishing a truly
distributed network among all participants, built on a Quorum
blockchain platform. The benefits of this include enhanced
transparency across the vote lifecycle. The added functionality
also incorporates the expansion of the platform to include the
participation of institutional investors to provide enhanced
transparency and end-to-end vote confirmation.
Patricia Rosch, president of
Investor Communication Solutions, International at Broadridge,
said: "The successful completion of a second pilot along with the
next phase of our blockchain-based proxy voting solution
demonstrates Broadridge's continued commitment to developing
innovative technology solutions in the re-imagination and
improvement of global proxy to help our clients get ahead of
today's challenges." She added: "As a key innovator in capital
markets and a leader in proxy, we continue to implement the newest
technologies such as blockchain to improve corporate governance and
address the latest regulatory requirements such as the Shareholder
Rights Directive."
Sergio Gámez, global head of Shareholders and Investor Relations
at Banco Santander, said: "The Annual General Meeting is one of the
most important corporate governance events for any listed company.
In the case of Santander, having very fragmented capital, it is
very important to ensure the participation by investors and
shareholders, and this year using blockchain technology for the
institutional vote has been a great help in terms of transparency
and agility across the vote lifecycle." Luis Antonio Perez, head of Corporate Services
at Banco Santander, said: "The blockchain technology has enhanced
efficiency and transparency upon the reception and vote tabulation
process, which will result in bridging the gap between all in the
process."
Justin Chapman, global head of
market advocacy and innovation research at Northern Trust, said:
''Corporate Governance is a key focus for our asset servicing
business and we are pleased to include one of our clients, Legal
& General Investment Management Limited, as a pilot investor in
this important initiative as we extend our collaboration with
Broadridge. We are excited about the next phase in creating
end-to-end vote transparency using blockchain as an enabler."
About Santander
Banco Santander (SAN SM, STD US, BNC
LN) is a leading retail and commercial bank, founded in 1857 and
headquartered in Spain. It has a
meaningful market share in 10 core countries in Europe and the Americas, and is the largest
bank in the euro zone by market capitalization, with nearly
EUR 90,000 million. At the end of
2017, Banco Santander had EUR 986
billion in customer funds (deposits and mutual funds), 133
million customers, 13,700 branches and 200,000 employees. Banco
Santander made attributable profit of EUR
6,619 million in 2017, an increase of 7% compared to the
previous year.
About Broadridge
Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc.
(NYSE:BR), the $4 billion global
fintech leader, provides investor communications and
technology-driven solutions for broker-dealers, banks, mutual funds
and corporate issuers globally. Broadridge's investor
communications, securities processing and managed services
solutions help clients reduce their capital investments in
operations infrastructure, allowing them to increase their focus on
core business activities. With over 50 years of experience,
Broadridge's infrastructure underpins proxy voting services for
over 50 percent of public companies and mutual funds globally, and
processes more than $5 trillion in
fixed income and equity trades per day. Broadridge employs
approximately 10,000 full-time associates in 16 countries. For more
information about Broadridge, please visit www.broadridge.com.
Contacts for media
Banco Santander
+34 91
2895211
comunicacion@gruposantander.com
Broadridge
Sofia
Chernova
+1 646-459-4314
schernova@prosek.com
Contacts for investors
Broadridge
W.
Edings Thibault, head of Investor Relations
+1 516-472-5129
edings.thibault@broadridge.com
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SOURCE Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc.