On 9 December 2016 the EU presidency and the EU Parliament agreed on the final version of the new Shareholders Rights Directive (SRD). Better Finance welcomes the completion of the new SRD which took years to finalise.
This final version provides limited improvements in shareholders rights, in particular in the critical areas of shareholder identification and of the exercise of cross-border voting rights.
Companies will be able to identify their shareholders and to obtain information on shareholder identity from any intermediary in the chain that holds the information. But Member States will decide that companies within their borders are only allowed to request identification with respect to shareholders holding more than a certain percentage of shares or voting rights which will not exceed 0,5%.
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An important barrier to cross-border shareholder engagement within the EU will virtually remain in place despite BETTER FINANCE's efforts, since intermediaries will still be able to charge higher fees to shareholders wanting to exercise their cross-border voting rights, but admittedly subject to certain conditions:
Read the full press release here.