Oecd legal Instruments

III.B. 
Votes should be cast by custodians or nominees in line with the directions of the beneficial 
owner of the shares. 
Custodian institutions holding securities as nominees for customers should not be permitted to cast the votes 
on those securities unless they have received specific instructions to do so. In some jurisdictions, listing 
requirements contain broad lists of items on which custodians may not vote without instruction, while leaving 
this possibility open for certain routine items. Rules should require that either investment advisors or 
custodian institutions provide shareholders with timely information concerning their options in the exercise 
of their voting rights. Shareholders may elect to vote by themselves or to delegate all voting rights to 
custodians. Alternatively, shareholders may choose to be informed of all upcoming shareholder votes and 
may decide to cast some votes while delegating some voting rights to the custodian. 
Holders of depository receipts should be provided with the same ultimate rights and practical opportunities 
to participate in corporate governance as are accorded to holders of the underlying shares. Where the direct 
holders of shares may use proxies, the depositary, trust office or equivalent body should therefore issue 
proxies on a timely basis to depository receipt holders. The depository receipt holders should be able to 
OECD/LEGAL/0413
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issue binding voting instructions with respect to the shares, which the depositary or trust office holds on their 
behalf. 
It should be noted that this principle does not apply to the exercise of voting rights by trustees or other 
persons acting under a special legal mandate (such as, for example, bankruptcy receivers and estate 
executors).