The revised Shareholder Rights Directive 2007/36/EC as amended by Directive 2017/828/EU, and commonly known as SRD II unfolds its effects on September 3,2020, when the Implementing Regulation 2018/1212 comes into force.
The directive encourages long-term shareholder engagement to ensure that decisions are aiming for sustainable stability of a company and consider environmental and social issues. Its implementation will reshape the proxy space and the shareholder visibility for issuers across the EU.
On September 3, 2020 the effects of SRD II on shareholder transparency, transmission of information from issuers to investors and exercise of rights will come into force.
Rights and Obligations
SRD II affects all market participants from issuers to intermediaries, institutional investors, asset managers, proxy advisors and even retail shareholders. While shareholders benefit from increased transparency and faster flows of communication, it's the commercial parties that are being challenged to meet the new requirements and demonstrate compliance by adapting their procedures and systems.
The immediate impacts for issuers are widespread - from increased transparency enabled by the right to 'know your shareholder' to new obligations for improved communications to shareholders when it comes to general meeting notifications and the transmission of information. Furthermore, the directive aims to facilitate the exercise of shareholder rights and processing of voting instructions.
Leading the way
As the leading global issuer services provider, Computershare has closely been monitoring the legislative process and has initiated internal product development at very early stages to make sure our clients are best placed to meet the new requirements and to benefit from the introduced rights from day one. Together with our longstanding relationships and continuous collaboration with all parties in the proxy chain, Computershare is well-positioned to help you navigate the new market environment without experiencing any disruptive effects.
Computershare HUB
Under SRD II, issuers will have to engage with numerous market participants such as institutional investors, shareholders, central securities depositories (CSDs) and proxy voting agents. To help issuers meet the new requirements and make sure they can manage their AGM-related communications and processes in a central place, we have developed what we call the Computershare Hub. Our pan-European platform helps you stay on top of SRD II regulations around your AGM no matter how complex it gets.
