VIDEO | The Shareholder Rights Directive (SRDII) – is it a necessary evil or unnecessarily complex? At the PostTrade 360° Nordic 2024 conference, five issuer representatives discussed what might make the regulation a better fit for them in the session titled “Bringing the issuer perspective”.

“I think SRD II is quite a complex piece of ‘art’,” said Maria Larsson lightly. The senior legal advisor at Svenskt Näringsliv then admitted, “From the issuer’s perspective, it didn’t come with many good new things. A few adjustments had to be made.” Some of the issues included what she called the “black box” of the chain of intermediaries, and the “many rules” on transparency, disclosures, press releases, and website information.

Máirtín Ó Duinnín, head of issuer product management at Euroclear Sweden, agreed. “There’s a bit of questioning why this is needed – and in a country like Sweden, where there is already relatively good transparency and governance.” He conceded that the regulation probably makes more sense in other parts of Europe, where it could mark a “real improvement”.

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Despite its flaws, SRD II is not completely ineffective. Ó Duinnín shared his observation that the directive seems to be maturing and taking effect, especially in investor identification. “The data is getting better, and I think it can become much more of a useful tool.”

Pasi Hiedanpää, director of investor relations and communications at Scanfil agreed. He shared that when he took part in the first shareholder study in 2009, it was hard to “get a grip of the shareholders”, especially the foreign ones outside of his home country of Finland. Today, he estimates that approximately 95 per cent of the shareholders would be visible to his organisation.

Ó Duinnín pointed out that although this new level of transparency might not all boil down to SRDII, it nevertheless provides a new way of looking through the custody chain and can complement the existing solutions that are already in the market.

Panellists:
Pasi Hiedanpää, Director of investor relations and communications, Scanfil
Maria Larsson, Senior legal advisor, Svenskt Näringsliv
Máirtín Ó Duinnín, Head of Issuer Product Management, Euroclear Sweden
Santeri Suominen, Senior Legal Adviser, Finnish Industries EK

Moderator:
Suvi Tyni, Chief Business Officer – Finland, Euroclear


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