Romanian Commodities Exchange runs the risk of being declared insolvent, because of "loose change"

• Septimiu Stoica: The debt in question was paid off last week

Ştefania Ciocîrlan

Romanian Commodities Exchange (BRM) runs the risk being declared insolvent, after the court of Bucharest decided to initiate the insolvency proceedings following the request of Moldova SRL Trading and Brokerage company, official of the Iaşi Terminal.

The management of the Romanian Commodities Exchange yesterday said that the situation was caused by the "inexplicable carelessness" of the company"s legal counselor, and that the issue would be solved as soon as possible. The amount in question is approximately 43,000 lei, which was paid off last week, according to officials of the Commodities Exchange.

The litigation was caused by the challenge between the Romanian Commodities Exchange and the manager of the Iaşi terminal concerning any possible irregularities concerning the accounting operations of CTB Moldova, officials of the Romanian Commodities Exchange said yesterday. The management of the RCE refused to transfer the amounts owed until the situation was elucidated, which sparked the disagreement.

"The cause of this situation was the mistake of a lawyer of the RCE which failed to submit on time the papers proving that the debt had been paid off", stated for our newspaper, Gabriel Purice, chairman and General Manager of the Commodities Exchange. The insolvency procedure was launched due to a 43,000 lei debt that the RCE owed to its Iaşi terminal.

"We are talking about an amount that is practically loose change, 43,000 lei, that we have already paid. Besides, the money was on a shared account.

We will get a cancellation of the insolvency proceeding right away", Mr. Purice said.

Negotiations between the Romanian Stock Exchange and the Moldova Brokerage and Trading Company took several months, as the parties had claims against each other, said Septimiu Stoica, the chairman of the RCE.

"As far as the Commodities Exchange is concerned, this litigation was caused by a number of mutual claims. Now that their claim has been paid off, all that"s left is to see how our claims will get solved", Mr. Stoica explained.

The officials of the Iaşi terminal confirmed that the debt has been paid off, but they refused to make any statement on the receivables of the RCE has yet to receive from the Moldova Brokerage and Trading Company, which were not part of the aforementioned litigation.

"We made the payment, but it was not our responsibility to file those documents", said the official of the Iaşi terminal.