Proxymity
Bringing A Digital Revolution to Investor Communications

For as long as public stock markets have existed, the ability to deliver clear and timely messages to investors, largely in advance of shareholder meetings, has been a major concern for listed companies globally. But in the past few decades, investor communications have become increasingly complex, with most investors relying on financial intermediaries that service their assets to transmit company meeting agendas, provide summarized information about corporate actions and facilitate proxy voting.

Over the years, this traditional paper-based process became fraught with inefficiencies, and further compounded by frictions from legacy IT systems distributed across organizations, all of which can frequently cause unnecessary delays, risks, and costs.

Addressing the need for a digital communication channel to traverse the complex financial ecosystem of share issuers (public companies), intermediaries (custodian banks), and end investors, Proxymity’s digital investor communications platform transforms the traditional communication methodology to seamlessly deliver actionable information with speed and accuracy, replacing paper with API-driven, real-time data throughout the investment chain.

“Proxymity is removing friction and improving transparency from issuer all the way to investor, while providing benefits to all of the participants in trading,” says Dean Little, CEO and Co- Founder of the company. By digitalizing proxy voting, shareholder disclosure, and reporting processes, Proxymity enables the share issuers, their investors, and intermediaries to adopt a transparent and efficient way of voting, identifying, and reporting on their shareholdings.

Allowing complete control over issuers’ data, Proxymity enables companies to publish the information they want to be visible to investors as a single “source of truth,” with intermediaries connected along the same digital pathway. Any information the issuer publishes is circulated to investors and intermediaries in real-time, facilitating rapid action and ensuring clarity concerning voting.

“We want to help public companies actively talk to investors about how they're deciding company matters, notably ESG (environmental, social, and governance) elements that underpin all the high-profile issues that we're all talking about in the press today,” adds Dean. “This transparency goes alongside governing our economies effectively.”

Seamless API-Based Connectivity Enabling Proxy Voting

The company’s flagship product is Proxymity Vote Connect, which enables issuers to onboard the platform and upload their information for distribution. It provides comprehensive regulatory compliance for issuers, allowing them to send the data in a format that complies with local and international regulations.

Proxymity collates the information and aggregates all the feeds from the custodians to send notifications to investors, creating a clear transmission path to those with voting rights. As the information is sent in real-time, the investors receive it much faster, giving them more time to review the information and decide how they want to vote on company matters.

The crucial benefit that investors get from using the platform is that they can assess the factors that are important to them as a shareholder in that company. They can start their research much earlier and take the time to decide based on their own policies and considerations.

Proxymity's digital process helps to ensure that voting records are clear and that all votes are counted. Once the investor has voted, their vote returns to the issuer in real-time, providing companies with complete transparency through the custody chain through to the end investor, and obviating the need to decipher the voting decision.
The solution also offers a proxy voting option for intermediaries, servicing the end investors by providing the notification and collecting votes on their behalf.

Simpler Compliance for Shareholder Disclosure

In many cases, the issuers want a clear picture of the end investors of the company. Across Europe, where the Shareholder Rights Directive II is applicable, the issuers must call the intermediaries and inform them about the end investors. Intermediaries then must respond in a timely manner using specific digital formats, such as the ISO 20022 specification.

For this purpose, Proxymity has developed another product called Shareholder ID. The product enables issuers to call for the data in an authenticated method, which is then responded to by the intermediaries to support the investors. Proxymity’s Shareholder ID then consolidates and cleanses the data and simplifies it into clear reports that issuers can use to better understand their shareholder base.

The product is also available for intermediaries, helping them manage their regulatory obligation to respond to all incoming requests from the issuers.

Enhanced Connectivity Removing Barriers to Adoption

Proxymity works with issuing agents who service public companies across jurisdictions. Establishing digital connectivity directly with the agents, it provides connections via API or alternatively, agents can use Proxymity’s own platform and interfaces.

Agents can use both the Vote Connect and the Shareholder ID products.

For intermediaries, Proxymity provides multiple connectivity options that allow custodians to connect to it easily, including solutions that receive files that are not formatted, or incompatible with the latest industry standards. The files are translated automatically for the custodian, and this facilitates rapid and secure connection with Proxymity’s platform regardless of existing infrastructure.

Impacting Investor Communication Across Markets

Proxymity provides its services to thousands of issuers in 29 markets with its Vote Connect product, and has seven out of the ten largest global custodian banks, including Citi, JPMorgan, and Deutsche Bank, signed up to the platform.

From providing faster notifications directly from the issuer to giving more time to an investor for voting and overall transparency, Proxymity offers its customers a gateway to information that is radically faster compared with legacy processes. Custodians using the Vote Connect product benefit from improved regulatory compliance, which results in cost reduction and a better way to service their clients. For the issuers, getting data on voting intentions in advance of their general meetings benefits early and proactive engagement with their investors.

One of the many examples of how Proxymity is helping its clients is its current use by issuers from Computershare in Australia, where more than 700 issuers are connected to Proxymity, and custodians such as Citi and JP Morgan. In the UK, Proxymity is connected to the three major issuer agents, that collectively represent nearly all FTSE 250 companies.

“We differentiate ourselves with collaboration and innovation. There was a widespread problem in the market. And we collaborated with a number of different organizations that were facing that problem, to create a solution for the entire industry,” adds Dean.

Looking to boost the adoption of the platform further and add to its capabilities, Proxymity continues to promote wider usage of its solutions, increasing the benefits to issuers and investors. The more issuers and investors join the platform, the more robust Proxymity’s network becomes, allowing even faster and more accurate communication throughout the investment ecosystem.