Working party to draft electronic voting
guide
A best practice guide to electronic corporate governance is to be
drafted by a government-backed working party ahead of the e-commerce bill.
The Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) has requested that the
Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (ICSA) proposes
guidelines centred on electronic communications between quoted companies and
their investors.
The guidelines, which may be available as early as January, will deal
with communication issues and it is intended they will form minor regulations
tucked under the impending e-commerce act.
Manifest, an institutional voting and corporate governance company, and
the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) are advising the DTI as part
of the group's institutional voice.
The proposals may include limiting internet service providers so that,
for example, only those who can reliably check against undelivered e-mails
would be considered fit for business in the evolving world of e-based investor
relations.
Other issues include security of data and reliability that company
reports appearing on websites will not be altered at a later stage.
For the ICSA, a body comprised of company secretaries, a main driver is
ensuring businesses take advantage of e-commerce opportunities to better their
shareholder relations, but for investors corporate governance and voting also
play a prominent role.
David Gould, investment director at the NAPF, said: One of the issues
that came out of the Newbold Report [a report into voting published in
July] was to achieve greater levels of voting, particularly on the back of
electronic voting."
But Sarah Wilson, managing director of Manifest, said the group viewed
internet-based communications as an extra tool that complimented traditional
paper-based investor relations.
"The internet is one conduit, but it should not replace everything. It
should just be a parallel stream," she said.
Wilson estimates it will take three-to-five years before
e-communications becomes the norm between investors and companies.
Bob Blanks, deputy policy director at ICSA, said he hoped the group
would produce consultation in January.
Nick Fitzpatrick, Pensions Week
13 December, 1999
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