Tanase (BVB): First time when we have chance to be promoted to emerging market status

Global index provider FTSE Russell will make the announcement on whether they will upgrade or not the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) to emerging market status on September 26, and this is the first time when the BVB has a chance to be promoted, Adrian Tanase, the BVB CEO told a specialist forum on Friday. 

"On September 26 FTSE will make the announcement on whether they will promote or not the Bucharest Stock Exchange. All I can tell you is that this is the first time we have the chance to be promoted. We fulfill all their requirements, the quantitative and the qualitative conditions. This doesn't mean that we will automatically be promoted. It means that we will be considered by the FTSE index committee for a promotion. For them, the feed-back they receive from their clients, from the investment funds that follow the FTSE indices, the feed-back from these investors related to the Romanian market matters a great deal," said Adrian Tanase at the Capital Market Forum organized by Financial Intelligence. 

He also mentioned that without a Central Counterparty Romania cannot have an efficient secondary market, which is why the institution is important. 

"We aim to increase liquidity, and increasing the efficiency of the secondary market is one of the targets our efforts are directed at. With this institution we believe that we will be able to significantly increase the liquidity. We are glad that we have such a strong partner as OPCOM and we are right on the home stretch with setting up the company," Tanase said. 

He mentioned that the new institution must have a capital of at least 16 million euro, and the Stock Exchange will participate with over 10 million euro and OPCOM with 3.2 million, but that partners have also been identified with whom discussions are being carried out for the constitutive act and for the governance of the company to be established. 

"We are hoping that by the end of this month the company will be set up. The fact that we will have the company established does not mean that we will already have a CCP because then the process of authorizing the CCP begins, and according to the estimates we have presented including to the shareholders of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, this will last 16 months. Somehow CCP will be operational at the end of 2020 - the beginning of 2021," said Adrian Tanase. 

In September last year FTSE Russell maintained Romania on its watch list for a possible reclassification from Border Market status to Emerging Secondary Market status. 

According to the document, the criterion regarding "sufficient market liquidity to support significant global investments" has been improved from "Not met" to "Restricted", as a result of improving market liquidity. 

Romania was added to this watch list in September 2016.