Mediant Communications, a provider of proxy services to both brokers and corporations, announced today it is unilaterally lowering the fees its corporate clients must pay for distribution of proxy materials to account holders at its broker clients.

Mediant’s introduction of competitive fees comes two months after it launched its proxy service for brokers in partnership with Legent Clearing, an independent clearing broker, breaking into a market long dominated by Broadridge Financial Solutions.

A schedule of fees that brokers may charge corporations for distributing proxy materials to beneficial account holders is published by the New York Stock Exchange. Now Mediant will offer a competitive, lower fee schedule for those corporations that use its issuer services.

“The NYSE fees are a ceiling and not a requirement," says Arthur Rosenzweig, President of Mediant. "We believe competition will lower these fees, and we are the first competitor to do so.”

A corporation’s shareholders may own either registered shares, purchased directly from the corporation, or “beneficially owned” shares purchased through a broker and held in “street name.” In either case, the corporation pays for proxy distribution, but while the proxy fees for registered shares are competitive, the fees for beneficial shares have been regulated and monopolistic.

Mediant’s new proxy fee schedule will be implemented immediately for several hundred corporations who already use Mediant’s Issuer Services. They will receive a 25 percent reduction in the basic processing fee on all beneficial accounts processed by Mediant.

“The proxy industry is not a natural monopoly, and the fees do not have to be regulated,” says Rosenzweig. “Instead proxy fees should be negotiated between corporations and the brokers or their intermediaries. Web-based technology has lowered processing costs, and corporations can share the benefit in terms of lower fees.”