The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) will be responsible for future oversight of a template for asset managers to communicate to asset owner clients on their voting activity, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has confirmed.

The FCA confirmed the news in its latest update from its Vote Reporting Group, which looked at the need for a voluntary, standardised and comprehensive vote reporting template for asset managers to communicate to asset owner clients on their voting activity.

"Asset managers, in particular, could benefit from a consistent and standardised market-wide approach, enabling them to more efficiently meet the varying requirements of their clients," Vote Reporting Group co-chairs, Caroline Escott and Shipra Gupta, said.

"It bears highlighting that everyday savers are the primary stakeholders of the Vote Reporting Group’s work.

"It is therefore essential for asset owners investing on their behalf to have transparency around utilisation of shareholder rights and responsibilities, in an increasingly complex voting ecosystem."

The group confirmed that this new template will be led by the PLSA, which will incorporate elements of its existing template into the Vote Reporting Group’s template to create a new version.

Both the Vote Reporting Group and the PLSA will also continue their engagement with proxy advisors and the industry throughout the year to deliver and embed the template.

The new template, which is voluntary and will comply with the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) statutory guidance, is likely to be operational and ready for firms to use from early 2026.

The PLSA will also publish a frequently asked questions document to provide immediate support for the new template and will publish guidance for the new template later in 2025.

Commenting on the news, PLSA deputy director of policy, Joe Dabrowski, said: “The Vote Reporting Template is valuable resource to enable pension schemes to exercise their stewardship responsibilities more easily and effectively.

"It allows asset owners to collect voting information from their investment managers in a standardised way and facilitate an improved dialogue between parties about how their stewardship strategy is being implemented.

“The FCA-convened Vote Reporting Group’s efforts to update and improve the template, based on industry feedback, are very welcome and the PLSA will be publishing the next iteration imminently.”

The FCA confirmed that firms do not need to take any immediate action regarding their vote reporting.

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