The necessity for multiple copies of a Power of Attorney (POA) signed by the beneficial owner is seen by many to be a deterrent to vote, given the additional complexity, cost and administrative burden – particularly for cross border votes. We're pleased to announce some positive developments in this area in Finland.

On 27 February 2008 the major Finnish sub-custodians announced that power of attorneys (POAs) signed by the beneficial owner will no longer be required to vote at shareholder meetings in Finland. This positive market practice change, which is effective immediately, is the result of discussions between market participants that have been ongoing for several months. These discussions culminated in several sub-custodian banks obtaining a legal opinion confirming that there was no legal obstacle for removing the requirement for PoAs.

While we agree that this is a great step forward for corporate governance, there remains a possibility that an Issuer will not accept the new practice with immediate effect and will demand to see a signed POA. All participants will be monitoring the situation to ensure that the Issuers accept the new process.

About 15% of markets, many of them European, still require that beneficial owners sign a power of attorney (POA) in order to be eligible to vote. It remains to be seen if other markets will follow the Finnish example and remove existing barriers to cross-border proxy voting.