SPOT, ALTERNATIVE TRADING SYTEM AND FUTURES AT SIBIU Spot trading on the Romanian futures exchange

This Saturday in Păltiniş, brokers were introduced to the trading platform of the Derivatives Exchange of Sibiu, the structure of the spot stock trading platform (which would be launched on January 22nd 2010), as well as the derivatives already under administration by officials of the Sibiu Exchange.

Teodor Ancuţa, the chairman of Sibex, made the following statement exclusively for BURSA: "We chose this platform (ed. note: the latest version of the GlobalVision platform), based on the idea that the trading system is the most important element of the stock exchange, for brokerage firms as well as for customers. Our goal in implementing GlobalVision was to innovate, to bring something new and completely superior to anything already existing on the equity market".

He said that the new trading platform -GlobalVisionExchangeTrading System - which is used by major global players, on the OTC and energy markets, will become operational on December 14th 2009.

The platform was produced by London-based Trayport, which offers trading systems used by stock exchanges all over the world. Trayport"s solution has a low starting cost, by charging a monthly fee according to the number of connections to the system. This approach helps reduce fixed costs.

As market operator, The Monetary Financial and Commodities Exchange of Sibiu, will manage a regulated spot market, a regulated derivatives market and an alternative trading system.

The two markets (derivatives and spot) are designed in order to allow any issuer to find interested investors, and to get listed on the regulated spot market or on the alternative trading system, managed by BMFMS, its chairman added, who also mentioned that Sibex would be far more transparent in the case of issuers listed on the Alternative Trading System (ATS), and that it would try to help and foster a tight collaboration with the members of the Association of Stock Market Investors. The new exchange will also attempt to list companies from sectors with untapped potential which are not popularized on the BSE (such as companies operating in the IT industry).

Eltrans v.6, the new trading interface dedicated to brokers and customers of Sibex, will allow running both the spot and the derivatives market in the same interface.

The implementation of the new system will also bring about changes of the clearing system, said Toma Doşteţeanu, the executive manager of the Romanian Clearing House, who explained that margins would be calculated using the spread between maturities. This means that for opposite positions with different maturities margin requirements would be reduced.

• Quicker listing of companies

"Listing of companies will be quicker than on the Stock Exchange; we will try to help issuers get listed as quickly as possible. The process will take about two months less than it does in the case of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, because we have far less bureaucracy, a direct listing will take three months, whereas an IPO will take six months to complete", said Mrs. Băcilă, who mentioned that the terms of admission for new issuers are extremely accessible.

The monthly fee for connecting to the trading system is EUR 250, whereas access to the electronic system for government bonds, to the regulated equities market or to the alternative trading system will be free of charge.

Apart from the Romanian Clearing House and the Sibiu Exchange, the architecture of the new system also includes the applications of the Sibex Depository, with the By-law no. 2 concerning the operation of Sibex to be approved by the National Bank of Romania. On January 22nd, Sibex will list itself, with BCR as the intermediary.

• The first exchange for carbon emission certificates

The Romanian market for carbon emissions certificates is a nascent market with a lot of potential, said Toma Doşteţeanu, executive manager of the Romanian Clearing House.

The allocation of carbon emission certificates is the European Union"s main tool in fighting against global warming. According to the Kyoto protocol, a single certificate represents the equivalent of one ton of carbon dioxide, and the allocation of such certificates will set limits on companies" emissions of carbon dioxide. Companies will buy and sell carbon emission certificates based on their ratio of meeting their pollution targets.

Turnover of trades involving carbon dioxide emission certificates was 60 billion dollars in 2008 across the world, up 80% YOY.

The European carbon emissions cap is 2.08 billion tons of emissions a year. In the case of Romania, the national carbon emissions cap for the 2008 - 2012 period, is 379,721,760 certificates, (75,944,352 certificates a year).

Each company running installations that cause pollution will be free to choose the method for selling or buying emission certificates. The president of the BMFMS said he wants deliverable futures contracts, saying that intermediaries would have very low commissions.

He expressed his regret that due to a decision by the NBR, trading would be done in lei and he expressed his hopes that VAT issues would be solved (ed. note. there is a regulation which exempts this kind of contracts from VAT).

Teodor Ancuţa also said that on Wednesday, he would receive the visit of two officials of the Warsaw Stock Exchange, to discuss a dual listing of the two exchange operators.