News about the Meetings
12.05.20
E-Voting Lets Shareholders Exercise Their Rights Safely in the Current Situation
The current global situation contributes to the digitalization of corporate governance processes; however, it poses challenges related to the legislative framework and society’s trust in online processes. These conclusions were made by participants in the panel session “Digital Technologies and Corporate Law.”
The event was conducted on 7 May as a video conference. It was initiated by the Private Law Research Center named after S. S. Alexeyev under the President of the Russian Federation. Panel participants, corporate secretaries of major Russian joint stock companies, and professional lawyers discussed highly topical issues related to conducting general shareholders meetings in presence using digital technologies, as well as the implementation of electronic technologies in the corporate governance environment for limited liability companies.
The general opinion among event participants was that, despite numerous issues that required improvements related to digital profile laws and the integration of commercial services with electronic government infrastructure, global isolation has given a powerful impetus to the development of digital technologies focused on exercising rights to manage, take part in shareholder meetings, and receive information.
Meanwhile, the demand for remote digital services has been growing not just due to the current situation but also due to market participants’ steady work on shareholders’ rights and interests protection.
Maria Krasnova, Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board, NSD, shared the experience of financial market infrastructures operations, and noted that in the recent years, a significant progress was made in Russia in the sphere of regulating technologies allowing for the remote participation in general meetings of shareholders, and of promoting electronic voting services.
“The experience of using CSD’s E-voting platform by shareholders demonstrated that Russian infrastructure was totally ready to take up modern challenges and was able to provide shareholders with an option to take part in meetings remotely during the COVID-19 epidemic. NSD has seen multifold growth in the number of shareholders who use the E-Voting platform. The majority of shareholders who voted at meetings did this electronically. We are happy that we were able to offer investors convenient, affordable, and effective technologies that allow them to exercise their rights in a safe and trusted environment,” pointed out Ms. Krasnova.
A video of the conference is available here: http://privlaw.ru/video-share/video-share-2020/video2020-5/
