THE BSE, BCR AND ERSTE, TAKEN TO COURT The trial against Erste and the BSE concerning structured products will begin in September

The lawsuit by which the Romanian Commercial Bank, Erste Group Bank and the Bucharest Stock Exchange were sued by "Muntenia Imobiliare Development", for irregularities on the structured products market, will begin on September 25th 2010, according to an announcement published on the website of the BSE.

As early as the end of January, BURSA announced that the three institutions were taken to court by "Muntenia Imobiliare Development".

The fact that some of the investors had doubts that BCR is honoring its obligations of liquidity provider for the turbo certificates (ed. note: certificates using leverage), had been reported for the first time by BURSA, in October.

The lawsuit was filed on January 12th with the Court of Bucharest. Some of the charges brought against BCR include manipulation of the capital market. The lawsuit alleges that BCR deliberately misled investors by creating a false impression on the liquidity and functionality of the trading system, has issued inaccurate information through the press release, and "did not ensure equal treatment of the investors when it comes to the closing of their positions, because it offered quotations and has closed positions in a discriminatory manner for certain intermediaries only".

The BSE is being accused of not having thoroughly supervised the activity of BCR as liquidity provider for the structured products issued by "Erste".

The CNVM has announced that is has begun an investigation, of the market for derivative products, following the complaints received from several investors, but the investigation has not yet been completed yet.