A new general meeting service

In the light of recent legislative and regulatory changes including the Directors Remuneration Report Regulations arising from the Myners Report, companies are increasingly choosing poll votes at general meetings. Our new VoteNow Service not only offers a fast and accurate solution to poll votes, it also offers a comprehensive automated registration process linking meeting attendees with their voting rights. The service uses newly designed electronic voting handsets to record the votes, weighting each one according to the number of shares held, and can instantly display resolution results. Our new VoteNow service is fast, accurate and can be personalised to your own corporate needs.

What are the benefits?

• Time - Enhances and automates registration, avoids time consuming manual counts and poll results are displays quickly
• Accuracy - Automated data capture and computerised checks enable enquiries to be answered fully and quickly. There is also a full electronic audit trail of attendance and voting
• Professionalism - Professional image is enhanced - the new VoteNow service will look impressive to shareholders attending, resolution results are displayed quickly and accurately
• Technological Advance - This is the logical next step in light of recent advances. The system also offers many features for future advances- eg microphone facility, question queuing and management functionality, combined registration and voting at multiple site meetings, instant language translation and web-based fast track registration
• Certainty - Results available on poll rather than on ‘show of hands’ taking away the need for contingency arrangements in event the vote is lost. Demonstrates the principle of one share, one vote
• Facilitates savings in terms of press announcements etc.

What are the features?

• Integration - attendee entitlement data is derived directly from the register of shareholders
• Proxy votes, including CREST proxy votes, are imported as at the formal cut off date and pre-registered on to the system
• Registration - all types of attendees (shareholders, corporate representatives, proxies, guests, press etc) are registered onto the system on arrival
• Handsets or smartcards - are issued which links the attendee with the appropriate account on the register
• Live Vote - delegates will have full instructions on how to use the handset or smartcard to vote. Once they have voted their handset will confirm that their vote has been received
• Live and Proxy votes are automatically merged
• Resolution and result presentation screens - these can be customised to match your company's specific requirements
• Detailed audit trail - available as well as a live and proxy vote breakdown, this enables any part of the process to undergo detailed scrutiny

Your next step

For more information on these services, either speak to your Relationship Manager or contact our Business Development Team.