SGX, director and company secretary groups set standards for virtual general meetings

SINGAPORE Exchange Regulation (SGX RegCo) and its partners on Thursday (Nov 24) issued a set of standards for companies to consider when holding virtual or hybrid general meetings. The regulator – together with the Singapore Institute of Directors (SID) and the Chartered Secretaries Institute of Singapore (CSIS) – recommended that companies deploy systems that would allow attendees to register interest for the meetings and verify their identities virtually.

Most importantly, members at a virtual or hybrid general meeting should be allowed to vote on resolutions, with the option to amend their submitted votes up until the close of voting for each resolution, said SGX RegCo.

These standards come after the Ministry of Law in April 2020 allowed entities to hold general meetings via electronic means amid Covid-19 restrictions. They will be allowed to hold such meetings virtually until the Ministry revokes or amends the order.

This then prompted the regulator to seek input from stakeholders across the market community and the birth of these standards, which aim to engage companies effectively at hybrid or virtual meetings as well as fulfill the typical requirements of allowing shareholders vote at the meetings.

SGX Regco encourages all issuers of such meetings to hold these considerations in mind when choosing service providers for their virtual/hybrid shareholder meetings.

“It is our hope that this set of standards will help assure issuers of the adequacy of the systems they use in order to hold such meetings,” said Tan Boon Gin, chief executive of SGX RegCo.