interactive investor wins AIC Shareholder Engagement Award for second year in a row

Delight over recognition of commitment to shareholder engagement.

We were delighted to win the Association of Investment Companies (AIC) recent Shareholder Engagement Award, for the second year in a row.

This award, now in its second year, recognises the work that investment platforms do to facilitate and encourage shareholder engagement with investment companies. This includes voting, annual general meetings (AGMs), and important corporate actions.

ii has long advocated for the democratication of AGMs, and has implemented a number of initiatives to stop barriers to entry for retail investors and possible disinfranchiesment.

• Shareholder voting & information. Have your say on the companies you invest in

Judged by platform specialists, The Lang Cat, entrants were scored on shareholder voting, AGM participation, corporate actions, as well as documents and data.

We were praised by the judges for our ‘deep commitment’ to shareholder engagement, and going ‘above and beyond’ our efforts last year which won us the award in 2021.

The judges were particularly impressed by our decision to automatically opt in customers to vote (who could still opt out) and our imputus to provide relevant and engaging information and reminders on upcoming votes. Following this change, votes processed on the ii platform increased 48% in H1 2022 (compared to H1 2021) to 133,997 votes.

Our lobbying efforts were also praised, particularly our letter to the Treasury calling for “plain-English” AGM notifications, educational materials, and promotion about the importance of voting.

Judging criteria

The award was open to direct-to-consumer (D2C) investment platforms and focused on four areas:

• Shareholder voting. How well does the platform facilitate shareholder voting?
• AGM participation. How well does the platform facilitate participation in annual general meetings (AGMs) for shareholders of investment companies?
• Corporate actions. How efficiently and effectively does the platform notify shareholders about corporate actions, and enable them to respond where necessary?
• Documents and data. How well do platforms display investment company documents (such as annual reports) and data?

Commenting on the win, Richard Wilson, CEO of interactive investor, said: “Private investors can have a powerful collective influence over a company’s conduct and future direction through their vote, should they wish to use it. We have seen meaningful progress in the numbers of customers voting and attending AGMs this year, showing that when barriers and red tape are removed, positive change can start to happen. We know we have more to do.

“We also hope that even more powerful change is coming from the wider industry: everyone deserves to be given the tools to make their voices heard by UK plc. We’d like to thank the AIC and the lang cat for raising the profile of shareholder democracy on investment platforms. We are thrilled to have won this award.”

Annabel Brodie-Smith, Communications Director of the Association of Investment Companies (AIC), said: “Being able to vote your shares, attend meetings and take part in corporate actions are some of the key benefits of investing in an investment company, but not all investors who hold their shares through platforms realise how to exercise these rights. The AIC’s Shareholder Engagement Award recognises the work that investment platforms do to facilitate and encourage shareholder engagement with investment companies. We’d like to congratulate all those who entered for their progress in this important area.”

Liz Evans, Analyst at the lang cat, said: “As we saw last year, our entrants demonstrated great capability in this area with this year’s winners in particular not resting on their laurels following their win last year. interactive investor is certainly best in class, going above and beyond other entrants with their industry engagement, government lobbying and continuous engagement and education work, making them rightful winners.

“With the recommendations we have made to participants this year and the commitments highlighted from entrants, we are hopeful that we will see more providers joining the ‘opt-out’ process in the next year. This will further steer the way for shareholders’ rights, making the process as simple as possible whilst knocking down the barriers to shareholder voting along the way.”