Taiwan Depository & Clearing Corporation

Digital innovation has been one of the government's top priorities in recent years. Being the back office of the capital markets in Taiwan, TDCC bears unshakable responsibility for such innovations in the market. "The 4e shareholder services are our priorities for the near future. e-Voting and e-Meeting were already launched. e-Notice and e-Gift are under development. With these services, we hope to diversify the digital development for shareholder meetings and bring investors more convenient digital services. Our goal is to lower operational costs for stockholder affairs, while fulfilling our commitment on ESG action plans and sustainable finance," says TDCC Chairman Han-Chiang Chu.

Here are current results of TDCC's 4e services and their outlook:

(1) Solid use of e-Voting, with high adoption rate among foreign investors.

The e-Voting platform launched more than 10 years ago, yet TDCC continues to perfect it to satisfy the market's needs, and there have been impressive results. This year, nearly 60% of all the votes at shareholder meetings of TWSE-listed and TPEx-listed companies were cast on the platform. That number reached 98% for foreign investors as e-Voting is a convenient platform for them to exercise voting rights offshore.

(2) Innovative Shareholder Virtual Meeting Platform reinforces shareholder activism.

Amid severe COVID conditions last year, TDCC promptly launched the Platform for Shareholder Meetings with Video Conference as Assistance under the guidance and support of competent authority. On the platform, shareholders can sign up, register, check in, watch live streams, raise questions online, cast and count votes. The entire process not only saves time but also make meeting participation more convenient. Last year's experiences helped TDCC's in-house Shareholder Virtual Meeting Platform a reality in 2022, and 72 companies have adopted the new platform to conduct their shareholder meetings. Continued optimization of the new platform will hopefully see increased adoption from more companies, further fulfilling shareholder activism.

(3) Paperless shareholder notices make the world a greener place.

TDCC continues to expand its digital shareholder services in an attempt to help market participants focus on their ESG practices while in a carbon-free transition, and ultimately to meet the global goal of net zero emissions by 2050. Take shareholder notices, TDCC is in an on-going effort to make all notifications digital through various phases. Shareholders will be able to check relevant notices in real time on their phones or via email, and companies can reduce the use of paper notification and therefore costs. e-Notice will be a win-win for all parties involved.

(4) Gifts for shareholder meetings go digital to boost contactless economy.

Each year during the season of shareholder meetings, shareholders go to physical locations for their souvenirs and gifts, which entails a lot of labor and logistics costs for companies. In addition, COVID-19 has brought extra risks of cluster infection. Consequently, TDCC is evaluating an e-Gift service that will make physical shareholder gifts into electronic products or balance cards, which will cut costs for both shareholders and companies, make the carbon-free goal more attainable, and fulfill ESG.

"As a hub for financial services," says TDCC Chairman Han-Chiang Chu, "the company will continue to introduce digital and web-based services for investors, so they can utilize more Internet and be in less traffic. More digital services for the securities market will be introduced to make the financial market more prosperous. Together, we can make a new digital future for the common good of the world."