Equiniti ezine | February 2012

EZINE > FEBRUARY 2011 INSIDE THIS ISSUE: SHARE SCAMS & SWINDLES We discuss progress made with the FSA to prevent Boiler Room Fraud TRUSTED PARTNERS Several recent contract renewals show clients value Equiniti’s service EQUINITI BUSINESS PERFORMANCE Outstanding Q4 results in operations KEEPING IT REAL Introducing real-time share dealing for SIP clients ESP UPDATE Useful information on Early Day Motion and OT Tax Coding WEBCAST New acquisition for Equiniti

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EZINE > February 2012

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anti-fraud

Equiniti and the FSA are continuing to work together to crack down on scams and swindles

Share Scams & Swindles Following our successful client seminar with representatives of the FSA and the City of London Police, and the previous e-Bulletin in January, we wanted to let you know about the further progress that has been made to deliver against the actions agreed at the seminar.

Significant progress made

The following actions have been successfully delivered:■■ The 2006 FSA/ICSA Registrars Group Warning to Shareholders has been updated.

■■ Both the Shareview.com and Equiniti.com websites have been updated to include the warning and links to both the FSA and Action Fraud websites.

■■ The Contact Centre script has been rewritten and rolled out to agents. The information which they have been asked to obtain from callers has been revised and the questions slimmed down and made more relevant.

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anti-fraud ■■ A

further meeting has been arranged with the FSA on 29 February, to follow up the remaining action points from the seminar.

Actions for issuers

If you wish to use the new Warning, please contact your Relationship Manager.

The FSA has asked that they be advised of any significant mailings (say those to more than 50,000 shareholders) before despatch, so that their Consumer Helpline can be notified and resourced if necessary.

information after the mailing has been despatched. He/She will ensure that this is collated and made available to the FSA on a regular basis.

We will provide another update following the next meeting with the FSA and also keep you informed of any further developments or interesting information in the fight against financial crime and shareholder exploitation.

In the event that one of these is planned, please ensure that your Relationship Manager has the following information: ■■ Company name ■■ Date of mailing ■■ How many recipients will there be?

■■ Is this an enclosure on a separate document or has the wording been incorporated in another document?

For smaller mailings, there is no need to pre-advise the FSA but they are interested to know on a regular basis how the Warning is being used, so again, please ensure that your Relationship Manager has the same

If you would like more information: Please contact your Relationship Manager or John Heaton at TWSLimited@ johndheaton.co.uk

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contract renewals

Several recent contract renewals show clients value Equiniti’s service

Trusted partners What makes a great client relationship? Outstanding service, reliability and respect are undoubtedly important factors. Equinti is therefore pleased and proud to announce that several prominent clients have chosen to renew their contracts with us – confirmation that all of the above qualities run right through the heart of the Equiniti Group.

Following on from BT, who agreed to a minimum five year contract renewal earlier this year, Barclays, GlaxoSmithKline and Royal Dutch Shell have also demonstrated their confidence by signing up to Equiniti for five more years. Other companies who have pledged to continue working with us are United Utilities, Reed Elsevier, Mothercare, The Rank Group, Carnival, Wolseley, British Land, Tate and Lyle, UBM, Lonrho, Shire, Drax Group, Trinity Mirror, Electrocomponents and Cairn Energy.

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We are looking Did you know? forward with Our average client great pleasure relationship is to continuing 25 years. to provide outstanding service to all of these clients and are excited to have been given the opportunity to develop and growing these client relationships over the coming years.

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Dashboard

We are pleased to report that we can continue to provide a high standard of performance and quality, improving year on year.

Equiniti Business Performance In the information over these 2 pages we give details of our Contact Centre Service Levels. Transaction Processing Service Levels, Customer Complaint Quarterly Trends and Equiniti Developments.

Contact Centre Service Level Standards Equiniti Contact Centre achieved an overall grade of service of 94% against a service level target of 80%.

99.3% of all calls presented were answered. A total of 453,253 calls were answered.

In the most recent Capital Analytics survey, Equiniti received the highest scores in the Contact Centre and Complaint Resolution categories when compared to our competitors.

The ability to process Address Changes and Bank Mandates has made significant contributions to the contact centre in 2011 by helping us to reduce complaints and repeat calls. We are now looking to expand this to other processes within the Contact Centre in 2012.

Quarterly % Total Calls Answered

Average Monthly Volumes of Calls Received

Service Standard

% 100

250k

98

230k

96

210k

94

190k

92

170k

90

150k Q4 09

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Q1 10

Q2 10

Q3 10

Q4 10

Q1 11

Q2 11

Q3 11

Q4 11

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Dashboard Transaction Processing Service Level Standards Service level performance was 99.8% for Q4. This strong performance ensured that Equiniti significantly exceeded its 95% service standard throughout 2011.

As expected, volumes in Q4 increased slightly when compared to Q3, due to the interim Dividend season and Sharedealing tasks.

This increase is in line with previous years and has been well managed.

Volumes are expected to rise in Q1 2012 due to the proxy season and the commencement of the Final Dividend period. Resource needs have been identified and staff training is now underway.

Quarterly Average Service %

Quarterly Average Volumes processed

Service Standard

% 100

1,400,000

98

1,200,000

96

1,000,000

94

800,000

92

600,000

90

Customer Complaints 2011 has seen a record low in terms of incoming complaints. This demonstrates the effectiveness of quality improvements and staff training on the overall quality of service delivery and the improved customer experience. Highlights for 2011 include: ■■ Incoming complaints 7% lower compared to 2010 and 37% lower than 2009.

■■ Upheld complaints 30% lower than 2010 and 65% lower than 2009.

■■ FOS referrals 60% lower than 2010 with associated compensation 90% lower than 2010 for those cases referred in 2011.

■■ Press complaints received reduced by 53% compared to 2010.

A Quality Initiative Plan for 2012 is in place and underway to continue to build on the success of 2011.

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400,000 Q4 09

Q1 10

Q2 10

Q3 10

Q4 10

Q1 11

Q2 11

Q3 11

Q4 11

Quarterly Average Service % % 0.07 0.06 0.05 0.04 0.03 0.02 0.01 0

Q4 09

Q1 10

Q2 10

Q3 10

Q4 10

Q1 11

Q2 11

Q3 11

Q4 11

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Dashboard Equiniti Developments Q1-Q2 2012

Share Registration

■■ One

touch solution: expansions are planned in Q1 2012 to look at transactional processing using Debit/Credit card functionality over the phone.

■■ Shareview Electronic queries project continues to progress on track with a delivery date for Mid February expected.

Employee Share Plans

■■ Continuing

the roll out of ESP Portal. Client and employee feedback continues to be very positive.

■■ On-line real time SIP dealing will be available through ESP Portal from January.

■■ Following the successful roll out of on-line reporting on SIP and SAYE, reporting for Executive plans will go live in Q1.

Investment Services

■■ We

are currently focusing on the development of a new system solution for Corporate & Employee Services (C&ES), which was acquired from Nat West Stockbrokers (NWS) in September 2011.

We are combining this with further new platform development to enable Investment Services to enhance and grow its share dealing offering.

General

■■ Improvements

have been made to the sign up process and terms of the International Dividend Mandate Service with a view to improving Shareholder take up. Piloting promotions are now being planned to identify the optimal marketing approach, results to follow.

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Share Incentive Plan

Introducing real-time share dealing for SIP clients

Keeping it real Employee Benefits Solutions (EBS) is always on the look-out for ways to enhance its service offering for both its clients and their employees, so the recent launch of Equiniti’s real-time dealing for SIP (Share Incentive Plan) has marked a great start to 2012 and another step forward in the Portal’s usability.

Integrated within Equiniti’s ESP portal, real-time dealing revolutionises the selling of SIP shares by ensuring that employees receive a price before committing to a sale.

As Samantha John, SIP Product Development Manager, explains, “Previously, employees with SIP shares were only able to submit sales instructions as part of a bulk service, which were collated and dealt once a day. While this was an improvement on the previous system, there was an obvious disadvantage in that employees don’t know what price they will get for their shares. With our new service, participants interact directly with

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Share Incentive Plan

‘Fantastic service. Much simplified and very easy to use. Very impressed. I’ve been singing the praises of the new site to my colleagues

a broker platform through the ESP portal, to give employees a real-time share price direct from the market. They can then make an informed decision on whether to commit to their instruction and should the employee then decide to sell, the trade is executed immediately.”

The technology behind this real-time dealing is market-leading and was developed in response to client feedback, as Samantha explains: “We held a variety of focus groups with our clients as part of the wider ESP Portal project, enabling us to take on board their feedback and deliver a product that was in line with their expectations. One of the key deliverables has always been real-time dealing for SIP, so we took that on board, and have delivered a fantastic service.”

The service was first introduced in January 2012, and has made an immediate impact.

The next phase is to continue to roll out this service across our client base, with nine clients currently activated and 11 more activations expected in March.

“Ultimately, one of the things you really want to know as a shareholder is what your shares are worth so that you can make an informed decision about whether to sell or hold on to them, this service makes that possible,” Samantha adds; “It’s a great example of us listening to our clients, taking on board what they want, and then using technology and our expertise to deliver that.”

Following the launch of the service in January, employee feedback has been hugely positive.

If you would like more information: Please contact Samantha.John@equiniti.com

The transaction was very simple and easy to follow and the real time selling is a great advantage

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Employee Share Plans

Useful information on Early Day Motion and OT Tax Coding

ESP update We have two Employee Share Plan updates for you this month: Adrian Bailey, Chairman of the Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee, has tabled an Early Day Motion calling on the Government to increase the monthly saving limits for both SAYE and SIP share plans (£450 a month for SAYE plans and £2,000 a year for SIPs). If you support this, it would be helpful if you could contact your local MP to ask them to sign Early Day Motion number 2626.

HMRC has announced that from 6 April 2012 code ‘0T’ should be used to deduct tax on share-based payments made to leavers after their P45s have been issued. This change will align all postemployment earnings under the same tax code. Comments on the draft changes to the PAYE regulations closed on 16 February 2012.

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webcast

Mark Taylor, Director of Investor Services at Equiniti talks about the acquisition and integration of the Corporate and Employee Services division of NatWest Stockbrokers.

Webcast: new acquisition for Equiniti

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