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TDCC's E-Voting for Online Shareholder Meetings Proves Effective in Fight Against COVID-19

2022/05/12

At its press conference on May 10, 2022, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) encouraged shareholders to adopt electronic voting methods to exercise their rights. The Taiwan Depository & Clearing Corporation (TDCC), which undertakes E-Voting affairs, followed suit to appeal to shareholders to vote online for meeting motions, free from boundaries of time and location. Exercising voting rights online in light of the current COVID situation not only helps prevention, but is itself an embodiment of shareholder activism.

In compliance with the FSC's corporate governance policies, TDCC began implementing an online voting platform in 2009 for shareholder meetings of TWSE-listed and TPEx-listed companies. The e-voting platform effectively serves as one channel for shareholders to participate in issuing companies' shareholder meetings, and both companies and shareholders have greatly benefited from it.

In response to growing demand, e-voting has been available for beneficiaries' meetings of investment and trust companies since 2020. As of 2021, the e-voting attendance rate of TWSE-listed and TPEx-listed companies was 62.7%, a clear sign that the platform has become the most important way for shareholders to participate in shareholder meetings. Voting can be easily done via computers and cellphones.

According to Han-Chiang Chu, President of TDCC, the company has put COVID-prevention measures in place with its "Disease Prevention Operating Guideline for Shareholder Meetings," and is conducting a rolling plan, improving and adjusting the disease prevention operation guideline for holding shareholder meetings. Chu also encourages shareholders to use e-voting to exercise their rights while help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

In addition, shareholders who wish to simultaneously take part in shareholder meetings or motion discussions can use TDCC's Shareholder Virtual Meeting Platform, which was launched on April 1, 2022. Combined with e-voting, the platform allows shareholders to participate in online meetings. More than 70 companies are expected to adopt the meeting platform this year, and so can shareholders.

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