Increasing pressure to vote

The Newbold inquiry's target of a 60% level looks achievable through new electronic systems

The voting record of institutional investors looking after pension fund assets is improving. The Newbold inquiry into voting discovered in the past year that, on average, almost 50% of the issued shares in big UK companies were regularly voted.

Newbold identified serious operational problems with postal voting by institutions because of the number of parties involved, including - as well as the company and registrar - custodians, investment managers and, quite often, boards of trustees.

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