In response to demand for more dedicated proxy voting tools, the PRI built an online form for signatories to – voluntarily – communicate how they intend to vote on shareholder proposals at company AGMs.
The vote declaration system, which is now live, aims to increase transparency across the industry, in line with Principles two and six as well as the PRI’s 10-year Blueprint. Indeed, by completing the form, signatories will gain insight into how their peers are implementing responsible activities in proxy voting.
The past few years have seen a trend in organisations beginning to capture this kind of information on a smaller scale (such as Aiming for A on climate change). As this trend develops, the vote declaration system will enable signatories to distinguish themselves as leaders in terms of promoting good practice.
Each item in the form has a link to the PRI’s Collaboration Platform, with options to declare voting intentions on chosen resolutions. It can be filled in by signatories and non-signatories and by doing so investors consent to being named publicly.
This builds on our work during the 2017 proxy season, when the vote declaration system was piloted. The system was used by PRI signatories over 30 times, declaring how they intended to vote on over 90 different shareholder resolutions.
