Alexandru Petrescu, ASF: "State bonds - a basis for converting investors to other stock market instruments"

State bonds are a basis for converting investors to other stock market instruments, said yesterday Alexandru Petrescu, President of the Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF), on the occasion of the event that marked the listing of the last Fidelis issue at the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB).

The ASF official stated: "The educational component of this program is proving to have traction. We have 37,000 investors in Fidelis government bonds, the number is growing, and it represents a very good basis for converting these investors to other stock market instruments, with elements of higher risk but also with higher returns".

Alexandru Petrescu added: "There is a lot of room for growth, there are tens of thousands of investors in Fidelis government securities, but there are millions of Romanians who have money in bank deposits. However, if we look at the yields of bank deposits over a certain period compared to those of government securities, it is clear that the investment in government securities has proven, over time, much better".

According to the data of the Investor Compensation Fund, at the end of the second quarter of this year, in 37,494 investor accounts at BVB, the equivalent of almost 20% of the total number of accounts, there were only government securities issued by the Romanian State through the Ministry of Finance.

Subscriptions in the last Fidelis issue amounted to more than 3.5 billion lei, exceeding by more than 300 million lei the record edition of August 2024. The offer was made in five installments, three in lei and two in euros, about 55% from subscriptions being in European currency.

For the securities in euro, the maturities were one year and five years, with interest rates of 3.95% and 5%, respectively, while for the securities in lei, the maturities were also one year and five years, with interest rates of 5 .85% and 7%, respectively 6.85% in the case of the tranche intended for blood donors. In the process of underwriting Fidelis government bonds, no commissions were charged by the intermediary banks, and the income obtained, both from interest and from capital gains, are non-taxable.