LONDON, England, March 13, 2023 (Newswire.com) - Proxymity, the leading digital investor communications platform, announced today that they have entered into an agreement with Citi Securities Services to go live in South Africa with their transformative digital proxy voting service, Vote Connect Total. The fully connected service will enable Citi's clients in the region to benefit from Proxymity's unique ability to convey golden source announcements, real-time voting and vote confirmations across the entire proxy voting ecosystem. The service will go live in April and is another landmark in the Citi -Proxymity relationship.
Through the Citi and Proximity connection and Proxymity's live connection to Computershare issuers, issuers and their international investors in the market for the first time will be directly connected to real-time, transparent communications.
The rollout in South Africa continues the trend of rapid global growth for Proxymity. Deployment in South Africa represents the first market in the region to go fully live with Vote Connect Total, following successful collaborations between Proxymity and Citi across Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Citi clients in the region now also gain access to Proxymity's digital platform to receive electronic meeting announcements and votes instantly and accurately, enabling them to service their clients in near real time.
Proxymity Vote Connect Total is a market-leading solution to calls from issuers, intermediaries and investors demand for increased transparency, allowing investor communications to be delivered in real time and error-free through the full chain of ownership using "golden source" data. Proxymity's digital proxy voting service removes friction by remedying the inefficiencies of existing voting channels, at time of increased shareholder involvement in company governance and global economic uncertainty.
These improvements will be felt across the South African market as issuers, intermediaries, and investors alike benefit from unrivalled transparency, and up to five more days for investors to make critical decisions on investments.
The Network Forum Africa meeting, taking place in Johannesburg from the 14-15 March, is a further indication of the growth of the South African market. The preeminent post-trade and custody gathering, of which Proxymity and Citi are both event partners, will see Proxymity CEO Dean Little speak on a panel entitled "Proxy Voting in the Region, How to Automate and Simplify," with today's announcement a milestone in realising this ambition.
Proxymity was supported by Citi Venture's D10XSM program, an internal accelerator that supports the creation, development and launch of new concepts by employees across Citi businesses. The platform was first launched following a collaborative pilot partnership, and the company was spun out by Citi in April 2020.
Dean Little, Co-Founder and CEO, Proxymity, said: "Our deep and sustained relationship with Citi has proven immensely successful across the UK and Europe. We are excited to translate this success to the South African market, allowing Citi's clients unprecedent access to a real-time, transparent proxy voting service ahead of a pivotal voting season where shareholders are demanding more from their boardrooms than ever before. Citi is an established custodian in South Africa, and we look forward to providing further value and transparency for their clients in the region."
"The provision of Proxymity in South Africa reflects Citi's commitment to providing the most innovative solutions to improve client experience and bringing efficiencies to the local markets. Through the simplification of processes and platforms, clients are now able to benefit from the synergies of leveraging the same proxy solution utilised in the UK and Europe." said Masha Maharaj, Citi's Cluster Head for Sub Saharan Africa and the Securities Services Head for South Africa."
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About Citi
Citi, the leading global bank, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services, and wealth management.
With US$26.2 trillion [1] of assets under custody, administration and trust, and an industry-leading proprietary network spanning over 60 markets, Citi Securities Services provides cross-border support for clients with extensive on-the ground local market expertise, innovative post-trade technologies, customized data solutions and a wide range of securities services solutions that can be tailored to meet clients' needs.
About Proxymity
Adopted by over 60% of FTSE 100 companies, Proxymity connects the world's ecosystem of issuers, intermediaries, and investors digitally in real time, bringing unprecedented transparency, efficiency, and accuracy to traditional paper-based processes. Trusted by the world's largest financial institutions, it is the leading digital investor communications platform, serving over twenty-five markets world-wide. Proxymity's ground-breaking technology has also been recognised industry-wide, with recent awards including FSTech's "Most Disruptive Technology in the FinTech Sector" and GC Magazine's "FinTech of the Year 2022".
Our solutions give public companies confidence that their AGM/EGM agendas are transmitted as "golden source" and provide institutional investors with the time to research and vote on corporate decisions, as well as actual digital confirmation that their votes have been received. The digital-native platform, built on highly scalable technology, provides full compliance with the latest regulations such as the Shareholder Rights Directive (SRD II).
Proxymity promotes enhanced environmental, social, and governance (ESG) by improving communication between issuers and investors while making it easier for intermediaries to provide efficient, timely and compliant client service.
The company is backed by a global consortium of the industry's most influential financial institutions, representing seven of the world's top ten Global Custodians managing over $200 trillion in assets under custody (BNP Paribas, BNY Mellon, Citi, Computershare, Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Börse, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, Mediant, State Street).
For more information, visit www.proxymity.io
Proxymity media contacts: Richard Morgan Evans: rmorganevans@sapiencecomms.co.uk
James Gitting: jgittings@sapiencecomms.co.uk
Sergio Cortes Allsopp
[1] As of 12/31/2022
Contact Information:James Gittings
PR Team
jgittings@sapiencecomms.co.uk
+442031953240
Original Source: Citi to Go Live in South Africa With Proxymity's Full Digital Proxy Voting Service
