• BSE officials not consulted beforehand
Although thievery on RASDAQ and The Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE) started over four years ago, The National Securities Commission (CNVM) took the first real measure against such thefts this year, on Good Friday.
On April 8th, CNVM issued a document headlined "Measure Order" through which it compels securities institutions (BSE, RASDAQ, registratars, The National Company for Clearing, Settlement, and Depository for Securities - SNCDD and custodian banks) to make preparations to serialize all securities in their records. Securities institutions have up to 90 days to "jointly and unitarily" adjust their software and then, by September 1st, consolidate stock registers in view of serialization. Within CNVM, this measure was suggested by Commissioner Victor Eros. The serialization of securities is an essential condition for effective prevention of stock theft. For instance, given that stocks are not currently serialized, it is virtually impossible to determine whether the stocks in a given portfolio at a given time have been stolen from someone else or not, considering that stolen stock is usually routed through several portfolios, blended with legally purchased stock and sold in tranches to other buyers before reaching the end-buyer where, once again, is blended into legitimately purchased stock. Bearing no name and no serial number, stocks are therefore impossible to track. Nevertheless, experts from The National Company for Clearing, Settlement, and Depository for Securities (SNCDD) have always claimed stock can in fact be traced, but the methods are not always fail-proof. Securities serialization will therefore solve the problem of tracking securities from one owner to the next, which is an essential prerequisite for combating securities theft and settling matters related to compensation (which, however, do not affect buyers who make purchases in good faith).
Nevertheless, the serialization process may involve difficulties that CNVM has not yet considered...