In other news, DTCC names board members from Apex & Northern Trust, KOR’s SDR gets the nod, Liquidnet hires from BNP Paribas, and Scientific Financial Systems collaborates.
ProxyVote Updates Target Ease-of- Voting & Query Concerns
Broadridge Financial Solutions has improved its ProxyVote app to help investors gain easier access to proxy information, officials say.
“The enhancements make it easier than ever for investors to access and review proxy information in upcoming annual meetings of the companies and mutual funds they own, and to cast their votes this proxy season,” according to a statement from the vendor. “The enhanced design of the app enables users to personalize their voting alerts and makes it easier than ever for individual investors to ask questions and vote in corporate elections.”
Some of the app’s features are:
- One click to all accounts: “Investors can link all their brokerage accounts to the app via a single, secure authentication process, eliminating the traditional process of entering a discrete control number each time they want to vote;”
- Personalized alerts and push notifications: “Sign up for alerts for upcoming meetings and for customized notifications to reflect proposal categories of interest;”
- A streamlined dashboard: “a single consolidated view to vote all investments;
- And biometric sign-in via thumbprint and facial recognition
“The coming proxy season peak, which runs from April-June, will involve voting at meetings of approximately 4,000 public companies. A record number of environmental, social and governance (ESG) proposals targeting climate change and diversity and inclusion are expected to be on the agenda (according to ProxyPulse), investors can update their preferences on must-attend meetings and corporate elections, at any time right from the app,” vendor officials say.
DTCC Taps Apex & Northern Trust for Board Appointments
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC), a provider of post-trade infrastructure systems for the securities industry, reports that two new members haves been elected to its board of directors via the annual shareholders meeting.
The new directors are William (Bill) Capuzzi of Apex Fintech Solutions and Kelley Conway of Northern Trust.
Capuzzi is chief executive officer at Apex Fintech Solutions. “He has spent his entire career in the trading, clearing, and custody business with over 20+ years of experience,” DTCC states. “Prior to Apex, Capuzzi held past senior leadership positions at Convergex, Pershing, and DLJ,” according to the statement.
Conway is executive vice president, head of corporate and digital strategy at Northern Trust. She heads the fir
Kelley Conway
m’s “strategic planning process and plays a key role in the creation of an enterprise digital strategy and roadmap to enhance client experience, produce quicker business outcomes and improve security, stability and scalability,” per the statement. “She brings more than 20 years of consulting experience in technology strategy, with past roles at Accenture and PwC.”
DTCC points out that the board currently has 22 directors.
“Of these, 14 are participant directors who represent clearing agency members, including international broker/dealers, custodian and clearing banks, and investment institutions; four are non-participant directors; two directors are designated by DTCC’s preferred shareholders, ICE and FINRA; and the remaining two board members are DTCC’s non-executive chairman and its president and chief executive officer.” — L.Ch
CFTC Approves KOR’s Swap Data Repository
KOR Reporting Inc. (KOR) has won the approval of the CFTC for its swap data repository (SDR), “pursuant to section 21 of the Commodity Exchange Act and section 49.3(b) of the CFTC’s regulations,” according to the regulator.
“KOR is the fourth entity that is currently provisionally registered by the CFTC as an SDR, a category of CFTC registered entities created by the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 to perform a variety of functions related to the collection and maintenance of swap transaction data and information. KOR was provisionally registered for the interest rate, equity, credit, foreign exchange, and other commodity asset classes,” CFTC officials say.
“KOR is required to satisfy certain conditions before it can begin operating as an SDR. In addition, KOR is required, as are all provisionally and fully registered
SDRs, to demonstrate continued compliance with existing regulations and to come into compliance with new regulations and amendments in accordance with the dates established therein,” the CFTC notes.
Liquidnet Fills Key Post for the Americas
James Rubenstein
Liquidnet, an agency broker, reports the appointment of James Rubinstein as head of execution and quantitative services (EQS), Americas. He will be based in New York and will report directly to Rob Laible, global head of equities.
Rubinstein will be responsible for “setting the strategic direction and leading the effort for Liquidnet’s EQS offering in the region, according to a statement.
Rubinstein has more than two decades of experience, according to a statement, “having joined Liquidnet from BNP Paribas where he was head of electronic equities product, Americas. Prior to BNP, he spent three years with Deutsche Bank as head of electronic equities, Americas, where he was responsible for algorithmic development, quantitative research, transaction cost analysis, client consulting and liquidity strategy. He joined Deutsche Bank from UBS where he spent 12 years as the Americas head of algorithms and analytics,” per the statement.
Liquidnet started its EQS business in 2014. “Since then, the offering has developed to include trading analytics, algorithms, ETFs, high-touch, inter-region and program trading,” per the statement.
Liquidnet Holdings, Inc. and its subsidiaries are part of TP ICAP Group plc., an interdealer broker that also offers trading systems and services. “The Group connects buyers and sellers in global financial, energy and commodities markets,” per the Liquidnet statement. — L.Ch
Scientific Financial Systems Gets Into the FinTech Sandbox
Scientific Financial Systems, Inc., a Boston-based financial technology company, reports that it has been accepted into the FinTech Sandbox.
The FinTech Sandbox allows FinTech startups “access to market data and infrastructure technologies from partners like Refinitiv, Factset, and S&P,” according to an SFS statement. “The startups, in return, collaborate with other startup residents to share innovations.” — L.Ch
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