On November 6, Better Finance´s Slovenian Member Organisation, the Pan-Slovenian Shareholders Association (VZMD), sent an appeal to the Slovenian Government regarding its 6th Anti-Corona Package (PKP6) to warn them about the risk of including a controversial provision that would exclude the possibility for shareholders and small savers to contest resolutions made at virtual and electronic general meetings.
This provision is detrimental to the transparency of private banks and financial associations, and limits the rights of financial consumers and savers, since it enables companies to ignore “unpleasant” questions and inquiries from shareholders during these remote meetings.
VZMD points out that such a provision also severely limits the powers of the Slovenian Institute of Contesting Resolutions of the General Meetings. This institute is the “one and only defender of the rights of (minority) shareholders“ in Slovenia. Limiting their powers, creates the risk that companies will misuse pandemic protocols to ignore general meetings and avoid any kind of responsibility towards their shareholders and other smaller investors.
Some issues already arose from this situation with some Slovenian companies such as TELEKOM SVENIJE, the Slovenian Sovereign Holding and the SAVA RE. This last one created an uproar by cancelling a general meeting for a second time, which caused the unjustified and harmful „temporary“ retention of EUR 34,705,806.06 reported profits and payment of dividends for 2019, from reaching their corresponding shareholders.
The VZMD is a civil organisation that is part of the European Federation of Investors and Financial Services Users BETTER FINANCE and the World Federation of Investors WFI, collaborating in their plight to the Slovenian Government for prudence and caution. This the inclusion of tools that financial consumers can use to contest resolutions and protect themselves from any kind of suspicious activity by financial banks and companies, as well as protocols that can guarantee sufficient and suitable communication between owners and companies.