How to Comply with the Standard for Virtual and Hybrid General Meetings in Singapore

The rise of electronic meetings — virtual and hybrid — has been intensified as a response to the COVID-19 situation. By 2021, more companies have explored various formats to conduct meetings, with increased regard for shareholder engagement and voting. Earlier this year, the Singapore Exchange Regulation (SGX RegCo) released its guidelines requiring companies to implement live engagement and live voting at all AGMs/EGMs regardless of the meeting format.

To supplement these guidelines, SGX RegCo, together with the Singapore Institute of Directors (SID) and Chartered Secretaries Institute of Singapore (CSIS), issued a set of standards for companies when holding virtual or hybrid general meetings.

Unpacking the ‘Standard for Vendors of Virtual/Hybrid General Meeting Systems’

The global shift to digitalisation, partnered with the evolving regulations, has pushed companies to seek meeting formats and services that can satisfy their needs. SGX RegCo, SID, and CSIS developed the standards from the input of stakeholders across the market when choosing service providers. With the standards made public, issuers and investors will be able to understand the considerations and effectiveness of digital services for general meetings.

Apart from the provision of live Q&A and live voting capabilities, the standards also cover the functional capabilities, general system availability levels, and recovery provisions of the systems. The full details on the standards are available on the websites of SGX RegCo, SID, and CSIS.

Highlighted below are the notable considerations for issuers and platform vendors when holding virtual and hybrid general meetings.

Registration, Validation, and Attendance

The AGM service or “Systems” must allow the shareholders to register to attend the general meeting and provide their information for their identities to be identified. The Systems must be able to provide means for non-shareholders of the company to attend the meeting. Most importantly, shareholders must be given the means to access the general meeting either virtually or physically.

Real-time Engagement

Shareholders who will attend the general meeting virtually must be able to submit their questions in text form using the AGM platform. Though not required, the Systems can also allow for video or audio questions.

Proxies

Shareholders must be given the means to assign other attendees as their proxies and vote on their behalf. The meeting platform should have the capabilities to specify proxy voting instructions and split votes.

Live Voting

Similar to Live Q&A, the AGM platform should allow shareholders participating virtually to cast their votes on resolutions to be verified by the scrutineers. In addition, it must also allow shareholders to change their votes until the close of voting. Where certain shareholders are ineligible to vote on some resolutions, the Systems must be able to disregard their votes and communicate the reason for the invalidated ballots.

Moreover, the platform must be able to uphold transparency of identities and votes in real-time for validation by the scrutineer.

Live Technical Support for Shareholders

In the event of any technical issues faced by the shareholders before and during the general meeting, the platform must be able to provide technical support by any means, such as a live chat system or a dedicated telephone line. This must be communicated in advance to the company and shareholders.

ConveneAGM: Fully Compliant Platform for Virtual and Hybrid General Meetings

With the new standards introduced, ConveneAGM, the end-to-end AGM platform by Azeus Systems, proudly presents its full compliance and commitment to better shareholder engagement in meetings.

Here’s how ConveneAGM adheres to the latest standards.

Live Voting and Live Q&A

Designed to deliver real-time and better engagement amongst shareholders and issuers, ConveneAGM pride itself on its interactive features — Live Voting and Live Q&A. The live voting feature digitalises the AGM voting procedures by automating the casting, collection, verification, and tallying of results. It also allows for the amendment of votes until the close of voting, splitting of votes, and single-device login to avoid double counting. Shareholders can easily attend and vote using their Singpass.

The live Q&A feature facilitates organic engagement in general meetings by guaranteeing two-way discussions on corporate and voting matters. ConveneAGM offers both text Q&A (as required by the Standards) and video Q&A to cater to the preference of shareholders attending virtually.

Real-time webcast and alternative webcast channels

ConveneAGM is the only solution that provides a sub-second latency webcast for virtual and hybrid general meetings. It supports real-time webcasts of the meeting in web browsers on multiple devices, including computers, tablets, and mobile. Wherever your shareholders are, they can easily watch and participate in the AGM.

In instances where shareholders experience problems connecting with the main webcast, they can opt for alternative channels to watch the meeting. ConveneAGM is the only AGM provider in Singapore that supports alternative webcast channels — free of charge!

Live Support

Apart from its advanced capabilities, ConveneAGM has been recognised by customers for its world-class support. On-site and online support is available during the actual general meetings to assist shareholders experiencing technical issues. ConveneAGM has a team of product support specialists who can be reached through email, telephone lines, and live chat systems with a 98% first-call resolution rate.

In the event of contingencies, ConveneAGM also has a system where the users’ registered information (accounts, emails, or mobile numbers) is downloaded to easily reach them.

Stringent Security Features

Complying with the data protection laws, such as the Personal Data Protection Act 2012, ConveneAGM is developed with robust security features that guarantee safe user access and data hosting. As required in the latest standards, ConveneAGM implements fine-grained role-based permissions to access the meeting and participate. Data hosting is handled by Amazon Web Services (AWS) and hosted in Singapore.

The Standard set by the SGX RegCo, SID, and CSIS provides guidelines for service providers and issuers of reliability requirements for general meetings. ConveneAGM conforms to this set of standards to ensure increased shareholder engagement and regulatory compliance. Ready to see how ConveneAGM can enhance your general meetings? Request a demo with us today!