Vote Reporting: Feedback Statement from the Vote Reporting Group

Read the Feedback Statement[1]

Why the Vote Reporting Group asked for feedback

The Vote Reporting Group summarises the feedback received to its consultation and discussion paper. This proposed a voluntary, standardised and comprehensive vote reporting template for asset managers to communicate to asset owner clients on their voting activity. It also explored the case for a public registry.

The Feedback Statement includes the Vote Reporting Group’s agreed voluntary vote reporting template. The template will be owned by the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA).

The FCA is the Secretariat of the Vote Reporting Group. The decisions in this Feedback Statement are those of the Vote Reporting Group and not the FCA.

Who this is for

This Feedback Statement is likely to be of interest to, but not limited to:

• asset managers
• asset owners
• consumers and their representative bodies
• industry groups and trade bodies
• investment consultants
• non-governmental organisations
• other service providers eg vote data
• proxy advisors
• public companies
• regulatory bodies and policy makers

Next steps

Firms do not need to take any immediate action regarding their vote reporting.

The PLSA will incorporate elements of its existing template into the Vote Reporting Group’s template to create a new template.

The template is voluntary and will comply with the Department for Work and Pensions’ statutory guidance.

The PLSA will publish an FAQs document to provide immediate support for the new template and will publish guidance for the new template later in 2025.

All next steps firms can take are included in the PLSA’s FAQs document.

The Vote Reporting Group and the PLSA will continue their engagement with proxy advisors and the industry throughout the year to deliver and embed the template.

The template is likely to be operational and ready for firms to use from early 2026.

Background

In November 2022, the FCA established the Vote Reporting Group as an independent working group to build an industry consensus for a voluntary comprehensive vote reporting template for UK asset managers. Until the end of the consultation, the Group had 31 members from across industry drawn from the key trade associations. The FCA is an observer and provides the Secretariat.