Foreign and Retail Investors Can Attend Shareholder Meetings Online... 'eVOP' Electronic Voting Platform Launched

From electronic voting to shareholder meetings, all on one platform
Available on PCs, smartphones and tablets
Security on par with KSD's core infrastructure

Ahead of the full-scale introduction of electronic shareholder meetings next year, the Korea Securities Depository has launched eVOP, a comprehensive support platform for electronic voting. The platform integrates all services related to both in-person and electronic shareholder meetings, from electronic voting onward.

On November 4, the Korea Securities Depository held a press conference at the Four Seasons Hotel in Jongno-gu, Seoul, titled “Introducing Electronic Shareholder Meetings and Launching the Platform,” and unveiled the details of eVOP’s services.

Starting in January 2027, listed companies with total assets of at least 2 trillion won at the end of their most recent fiscal year will be required to hold electronic shareholder meetings. Based on figures at the end of 2025, 210 companies are subject to the requirement: 201 on the KOSPI and nine on the KOSDAQ.

Concerns have been raised that shareholder access is limited because traditional shareholder meetings are held at a specific location around the same time each year, usually in March. “Articles pointing out the limited access for shareholders tend to appear every year during the shareholder meeting season,” said Korea Securities Depository President Lee Yoon-soo. “But from next year, there will be far fewer such articles.”

eVOP supports everything from casting votes before a meeting to participating in real time on the day of the meeting, all on a single platform. It is web-based and can be accessed conveniently from any mobile device, including a PC, smartphone, or tablet.

After logging in to eVOP and verifying their identity, shareholders can cast their votes electronically in advance, grant electronic proxies, and register in advance to attend an electronic shareholder meeting. These services are available from 10 days before the meeting until 5 p.m. on the day before it. During this period, shareholders can freely cancel and change their selection, regardless of which option they initially chose. On the day of the meeting, shareholders can exercise their voting rights in the electronic meeting room and ask the company questions by text or voice.

“We offer advance electronic voting and registration to attend an electronic shareholder meeting through a single platform over the same period to fundamentally prevent shareholders from exercising their voting rights more than once. This protects their interests while supporting efficient and stable management of the process by the issuing company,” said Park Joong-hoon, head of the Korea Securities Depository’s Electronic Voting Division.

The platform also supports participation by foreign shareholders, allowing them to exercise their rights just like domestic shareholders. Foreign shareholders can join an electronic shareholder meeting through eVOP using a shareholder identification code and password. Until now, foreign shareholders could exercise their voting rights by proxy through a standing proxy, but the process was complicated and they had to cast their votes in advance, nine or 10 days before the shareholder meeting.

A system has also been established to prevent shareholders from exercising their voting rights more than once. Even if a shareholder has voted electronically or registered to attend an electronic shareholder meeting, they must be allowed to attend in person if they show up at the physical meeting venue on the day of the meeting. If they have already voted electronically, their advance vote will be canceled before they are admitted to the physical venue. If they are already logged into the electronic meeting room, their online access will be blocked immediately before they are admitted to the physical venue.

The Korea Securities Depository said eVOP uses the same security and reliability framework as its existing systems. Security and reliability are particularly important because Korea will be the first among major countries to require a large number of listed companies to hold electronic shareholder meetings. “We have applied the same systems used for the Korea Securities Depository’s electronic registration and settlement operations, physical security for national critical systems, responses to hacking and cyberattacks, and triple-redundant data storage,” Park said.

The Korea Securities Depository plans to build an “inbound” electronic voting system that will allow global institutional investors to participate directly in eVOP electronic voting, as well as an “outbound” system that will enable domestic investors to exercise voting rights in overseas stocks.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.