Big brokerage firms are picky when it comes to the shareholders of the Proprietatea Fund

Some of the shareholders of the Proprietatea Fund, interested in selling their shares on the stock exchange, have found that some of the major brokerage firms won"t even bother to open an account for them, unless they hold a few thousand shares or tens of thousands of Euros. In turn, some of the brokers with smaller turnovers are fighting tooth and nail to attract any shareholder of the Fund interested in trading their shares on the stock exchange, regardless of the number of shares or of the amount that they can afford to set aside for opening an account with them.

For instance, a broker working with "ING" will not open an account for a shareholder of the Fund that holds less than 500,000 shares, or one that has at least 100,000 Euros. Shareholders of the Fund that wanted to open an account with ING, but didn"t fit the profile, were politely advised to turn to other brokerages.

"We do not have too many employees for processing the account opening requests. We usually work with large volumes of shares, in excess of 500,000, and with institutional investors", one broker of ING said.

"Intercapital Invest" will accept opening a broker-assisted account for any investor that has 10,000 lei or their equivalent in shares in the Proprietatea Fund. A shareholder of the Fund that wants to trade his shares online must have a minimum of 3,500 lei available, or their equivalent in shares.

Other brokerage firms questioned by BURSA, such as "Estinvest", "Ieba Trust" or "Carpatica Invest" seem willing to open trading accounts for any shareholder of the Fund, regardless of the number of shares they own. The commission charged however differs depending on the volume of shares, from 0.3% to 0.5%. Brokers say that in general, the smaller the volume of shares traded, the higher the fees.