Taiwan Depository & Clearing Corporation

The busy season for listed companies to hold shareholders meetings has arrived. During this sizzling summer, investors in Taiwan don’t have to go out to attend shareholders meetings but still can vote electronically through their cellphone app; foreign investors can also do so through STP process. This convenience proves that with services generated by mobile technology, Taiwan leads the world instead of following the world. As TDCC’s Chairman& CEO, Sherman Lin, points out, TDCC’s previous service procedure was based on the traditional two-steps B-B-C structure, which means TDCC provided services for customers such as securities companies (B-B), and then customers offered investors services (B-C). Based on the mindset of digital financial technology, the service mode gradually transformed to direct service for investors. StockVote, the e-voting service for shareholders meetings, provides investors with a platform to cast their votes and attend shareholders meetings electronically; the platform successfully creates a win-win situation for businesses and shareholders.

In 2009, TDCC launched e-voting. In 2015, the company successfully developed “StockVote App,” which was the first e-voting system whose interface operated on mobile devices such as smart phones and tablet computers. This innovation marked the milestone in e-voting at shareholders meetings. In 2016, TDCC launched a more advanced function, connecting StockVote App to Securities Company Order App; currently there are thirty securities companies establishing the connection, including Yuanta Securities. Investors can not only buy stocks through Securities Company Order App but also conduct e-voting at shareholders meetings.

Due to the customer-oriented principle,TDCC’s integration between software and hardware not only brings “perceivable” convenience to domestic and international investors but also sets up a model for CSDs around the world. This year, StockVote, the e-voting platform for shareholders meetings, was granted patent by Taiwan’s Intellectual Property Office under the name of “a way and system of executing shareholders votes on an automatic cross-platform.”

According to TDCC’s Chairman& CEO, Sherman Lin, the development of TDCC’s digital financial technology can be divided into three stages. The first stage was the 1.0 era when TDCC was just established. The following one was the TDCC 2.0 era when TDCC adopted comprehensive dematerialized custodian. Now the company is moving into era 3.0. TDCC will take the customer-centered principle, apply cutting-edge technology, integrate physical and virtual channels, offer more convenient and innovative services, and provide participants with cloud services.

In recent years, Financial Supervisory Commission has been actively promoting e-voting at shareholders meetings in listed companies; it issued an order on 18th January that all the listed companies should adopt e-voting at shareholders meetings since 2018. This year, there have been 1,223 listed and emerging stock companies adopting e-voting, 681 of which did so voluntarily and 542 on a legal and compulsory basis. The figures clearly show businesses’ support for e-voting and correspond to authority’s policy of comprehensive implementation of e-voting.

In order to strengthen corporate governance, the government is executing stewardship code with other nations simultaneously to encourage institutional investors to carry out corporate governance. E-voting brings more conveniences to international institutional investors to attend shareholders meetings; therefore, after 2018, when e-voting is implemented comprehensively, corporate governance will be further executed.

StockVote, the e-voting platform, complies with authority’s corporate governance scheme, strengthens the implementation of shareholder activism, and develops toward Fintech service interface. The incorporation of TDCC’s “ePASSBOOK” into e-voting will increase user’s participation in securities market in terms of depth and width, concentrate their attention onto corporate governance, and reach the objective of the comprehensive e-voting in the market.