SRD II
How does Candriam address requirements from the EU Shareholder Rights Directive II?
Background
The Shareholder Rights Directive II (SRD II) is a European Union (EU) directive (EU 2017/828)1 which aims at encouraging long-term shareholder engagement, by:
- Easing the identification of shareholders, transmission of information and exercise of shareholder rights
- Enhancing the transparency of Institutional Investors, Asset Managers and Proxy Advisors.
SRD II, as an amending Directive, requires transposition into each Member State’s national law. It is important to note that the directive is closely linked to the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR - Implementation deadline Q1 2021) through the focus on ‘non-financial’ / ‘sustainable’ aspects.
Requirements for Institutional Investors & Asset Managers
You will find below a summary of Candriam's responses to the new regulatory requirements, as well as links to documents that will allow you to delve more deeply into these points. All the following links are accessible from our Publications page, on our website.
| Target | Candriam and Institutional Investors |
| SRDII Requirement | Develop and publicly disclose an engagement policy that describes how shareholder engagement (vote/dialogue) is integrated to investment strategy |
| SRDII Requirement | Publicly available on Candriam website. Candriam Engagement policy describes how both dialogue, cooperation and voting are integrated into its investment strategy |
| Links | Candriam Engagement Policy |
| Further comments | Annual update a minima |
| Target | Candriam and Institutional Investors |
| SRDII Requirement | On an annual basis, publicly disclose how engagement policy has been implemented |
| Answer | Publicly available on our website. Candriam publishes on an annual basis how engagement and voting policies have been implemented. Candriam also publishes twice a year all its votes, which are available on its SRI publication page. |
| Links | Engagement & Voting report Details of vote accessible here List of resolutions at assembly general meetings is also available in funds’ annual reports. |
| Further comments | On an annual basis, publicly disclose how engagement policy has been implemented |
| Target | Institutional Investors |
| SRDII Requirement | Where Candriam implements the engagement policy, including voting, on behalf of an institutional investor, the institutional investor shall make a reference as to where such voting information has been published by Candriam. |
| Answer | The institutional clients will find voting information in the above mentioned reports but also in dedicated reports communicated to them, including details of vote, in compliance with Candriam voting policy or their customized voting policy. |
| Links | Candriam provides its institutional clients with an Annual report of the institutional dedicated fund or mandate (non-public). In case institutional clients have chosen to invest in one of Candriam open funds, all needed information is available on Candriam website, as described above. |
| Target | Candriam |
| SRDII Requirement | Identify and prevent or manage conflicts of interest |
| Answer | The way Candriam identifies and managed with conflicts of interest is detailed in Candriam publicly available engagement policy. |
| Links | Candriam Engagement Policy |
| Further comments | Annual update a minima |
| Target | Candriam |
| SRDII Requirement | Publicly disclose how the main elements of our equity investment strategy are consistent with the profile and duration of our liabilities |
| Answer | Information available in annual reports sent to institutional client |
| Target | Candriam |
| SRDII Requirement | Candriam discloses, on an annual basis, to the institutional investor with which we have entered into the arrangements, how our investment strategy and implementation thereof complies with that arrangement and contributes to the medium to long-term performance of the assets of the institutional investor or of the fund, including related turnover costs |
| Answer | Information available in annual reports sent to institutional clients |
| Links | Annual report |
| Further comments | Annual review |
1 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32017L0828