Broadridge Financial Solutions

Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc.
Company type	Public
Industry	Financial technology, Corporate services
Predecessor	Automatic Data Processing (ADP) Brokerage Services Group
Founded	2007; 19 years ago
Headquarters	Lake Success, New York, United States
Area served	Worldwide (primarily financial sector)
Key people	Tim Gokey (CEO), Chris Perry (President), Richard J. Daly (Executive Chairman)
Products	Financial software and infrastructure, proxy and regulatory communications, investor relations services, trading platforms, asset and wealth management software
Owner	Public shareholders
Number of employees	14,000 (2024)
Website	www.broadridge.com

Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. is a publicly traded company specializing in corporate services and financial technology, with its main office located in Lake Success, New York. Established in 2007 as a spin-off from Automatic Data Processing, Broadridge caters to the financial sector by delivering financial documentation such as proxy statements and annual reports, alongside shareholder communication services including virtual annual meetings.

Its offerings encompass financial software and infrastructure focused on corporate governance, proxy and regulatory communications, as well as investor relations. Additionally, Broadridge manages trading platforms and provides software solutions and infrastructure tailored for asset and wealth management.

1962-2006

Broadridge's origins trace back to 1962 when it was launched as ADP Brokerage Services Group, a division within Automatic Data Processing (ADP). Initially functioning as ADP’s shareholder communications arm, it served a single client by handling roughly 300 trades nightly.

During the 1970s, U.S. legislation introduced immobilization and dematerialization of securities, mandating that physical stock certificates be held by intermediaries while ownership was tracked through transaction chains. This transformation boosted securities trading and expanded stock ownership but positioned intermediaries between companies and their shareholders. Previously, banks and brokers managed shareholder voting internally; however, the new proxy voting system involving intermediaries fostered the rise of a specialized industry. ADP Brokerage Services Group emerged as one such intermediary, and by the mid-1990s, ADP had established itself as the leader in proxy voting and shareholder communication services.

2007-2018

In March 2007, ADP separated its shareholder communications division to form Broadridge Financial Solutions, an independent public entity headquartered in Lake Success, New York, with Rich Daly appointed as CEO. Broadridge conducted its inaugural virtual annual meeting for Intel Corp in 2009. By 2010, it was processing approximately 350 billion shares on behalf of clients. Amid the 2008 financial crisis, Congress scrutinized aspects of corporate governance including shareholder communications and proxy voting. A 2010 report presented to the House Committee on Financial Services underscored Broadridge's near-monopoly position in proxy voting services. The company maintained this dominant stance through 2013.

In 2016, Broadridge facilitated virtual annual meetings for 154 companies—a 71% rise compared to the previous year. That same year, it acquired Spence Johnson, a firm specializing in financial flow data intelligence, along with the North America Customer Communications (NACC) unit from DST Systems, thereby gaining access to address information for nearly 75% of public company shareholders across the U.S. and Canada. Later in 2016, Broadridge expanded further by purchasing M&O Systems, a financial services company based in Manhattan. By 2017, its workforce had grown to 10,000 employees. In 2018, Broadridge announced reaching 140 million investor accounts through its mailing services. That year also saw UBS Group AG's Wealth Management Americas become the first major client to implement Broadridge’s new software platform designed to manage front- and back-office operations such as account opening, trade routing, order management, and asset servicing.

2019-2024

On January 2, 2019, Tim Gokey took over the role of CEO from Rich Daly, who transitioned to the position of Executive Chairman. Later that year, in November 2019, Broadridge enhanced its portfolio management capabilities for private debt markets by acquiring ClearStructure Financial Technology. In March 2020, the company broadened its European presence through the acquisition of FundsLibrary, a firm specializing in fund document distribution and data services, which was subsequently incorporated into Broadridge Fund Communication Solutions.

By 2021, Broadridge reported total assets of US$8.119 billion, shareholders’ equity of $1.809 billion, net earnings amounting to $547 million, operating income reaching $678 million, and revenues totaling $4.993 billion. That same year, Broadridge agreed to purchase Itiviti, a Sweden-based capital markets trading technology provider, from Nordic Capital for $2.5 billion. Additionally, RBC Wealth Management-U.S. became the second client to adopt Broadridge’s newly launched advisor technology platform.

In September 2022, Cetera was the inaugural adopter of Broadridge’s Wealth InFocus communications platform, designed specifically to enhance wealth management communications. After initiating blockchain pilots for proxy voting in 2018, by 2023 firms such as UBS and Société Générale had implemented Broadridge's VMWare Blockchain distributed ledger software to facilitate repurchase agreements. Serving approximately 1,100 brokerage clients, Broadridge also managed proxy services covering nearly 80% of all U.S. outstanding shares.

June 2023 saw the introduction of BondGPT by LTX, Broadridge’s corporate bond trading platform; this chatbot leverages GPT-4 technology with a focus on bond trading. In 2024, Broadridge achieved a #3 ranking on the IDC Fintech Rankings and launched Sentry, a platform dedicated to loan portfolio management. Their product suite expanded to include new mutual funds, ETFs, managed accounts, app-based and zero-commission trading options, pass-through proxy voting enabling shareholders to cast votes directly, and a mobile application for proxy voting during annual meetings.

List of acquisitions

According to Evercore ISI analysts, Broadridge has demonstrated a consistent track record of successful tuck-in acquisitions, completing over 30 deals between 2007 and 2018. Noteworthy acquisitions comprise:

2016 - Spence Johnson, a firm specializing in institutional financial flow data intelligence
2016 - North America Customer Communications (NACC) division of DST Systems, a provider of business services
2016 - M&O Systems, a company operating in financial services
2019 - ClearStructure Financial Technology, focusing on portfolio management solutions
2020 - FundsLibrary, dedicated to fund document and data distribution
2021 - Itiviti, provider of capital markets trading technology

Personnel

As of 2024, Broadridge employs around 14,000 individuals. The leadership team includes CEO Tim Gokey and President Chris Perry. The board consists of eleven members chaired by Richard J. Daly, featuring prominent figures such as Leslie Brun, Annette Nazareth, Pamela Carter, Robert Deulks, Melvin Flowers, Brett Keller, Maura Markus, Eileen Murray, and Amit Zavery.

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