The electoral campaign for the management positions of the Bucharest Stock Exchange has begun

• The volume of BSE shares traded yesterday was five times higher than the year's daily average

• Candidates are making the first promises

The shareholders of the Bucharest Stock Exchange have already begun preparations for the General Shareholder Meeting of January, in which the stake is the leadership of the exchange operator.

The number of BSE shares traded yesterday was five times higher than this year's daily average and has amounted to 1.01% of the share capital, which means that the people who run for the management positions have already begun securing their support.

The price of the BSE yesterday reached 28.3 lei/unit, making it down 29.6% since the beginning of the year.

In total, 77.805 shares of the BSE were traded yesterday, compared to a daily average of just 14,737 shares this year.

The candidates for the position of chairman of the BSE are Stere Farmache, the current chairman, Dan Paul, the president of the Association of Brokers, and Lucian Anghel, chief-economist of the Romanian Commercial Bank (BCR) who was nominated by the bank. BCR is one of the shareholders which asked for the revocation of the Board of Directors of the BSE. There are 19 candidates for the Board of Directors. Yesterday, some of them shared some of their ideas for the future with us.

• Stere Farmache wants a dual management structure for the Bucharest Stock Exchange

Stere Farmache, the president of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, said that the Bucharest Stock Exchange needs to start at the next level, and the ideal framework for that would be to improve its corporate governance.

In his opinion, the improvement of the corporate governance makes the creation of a dual management structure possible, made up of a Supervisory Board and a Board of Directors, which is a management structure generally used by banks.

Stere Farmache said that this "management structure will lead to a clearer separation between executive and non-executive positions". He also thinks that this management model would result in a higher stability of the Board of Directors and would help the Supervisory Board focus on strategic directions.

"The implementation of such a management method would lead to more efficient operation and to better management", Mr. Farmache said.

He also considers that regardless of the shifts in the shareholder structure, this approach has many supporters.

Mr. Stere Farmache also said that he is still banking on the major companies being listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. "This would benefit the government, as well as private companies", he concluded.

• Pompei Lupşan: The trading platforms need to be adapted to the international standards

Pompei Lupşan, deputy general manager of "SSIF Intercapital Invest", said that the Bucharest Stock Exchange clearly needs a change. In his opinion, the trading platforms need to be adapted to the international standards, and the fiscal regime for the stock market needs to be changed.

Also, in his opinion, the stock exchange needs to lobby for the privatization of the state-owned companies.

• Narcisa Oprea, "Schoenherr": Directors need to make decisions that would increase the company's value

One of the surprise candidates for the Board of the Bucharest Stock Exchange is Galina Narcisa Oprea, a partner with law firm "Schoenherr". She said: "Raising the value of the company is the goal of any shareholder of a listed company. As a result, directors need to make such decisions that would increase the company's value". Narcisa Oprea considers that the financial performance of the BSE depends first of all on whether investors have confidence in the efficiency and safety of the regulated markets and of the alternative trading systems managed by the BSE. "Because without investor confidence there are no trades, without trades there is no liquidity, without liquidity there is no price, and without price there is no market", said Galina Narcisa Oprea, and she went on to say: "I think that investor confidence can also be bolstered by raising the level for the implementation of corporate governance among listed companies, by eliminating useless procedural barriers, by creating a simple and clear regulatory framework, but especially by complying with the rules and through a uniform practice". Mrs. Narcisa Oprea considers that the role of the BSE in the ambitious government program to privatize state owned companies through public offers is very important, because ongoing dialog with the public institutions involved can contribute to a better structuring and advertising of the public offerings.

• Ioana Tănase: "Unicredit CAIB Securities" wants to increase the number of listed companies and range of products

Ioana Tănase, managing director "Unicredit CAIB Securities", said: "The major goal of any of the potential members of the Board of Directors of the BSE is most definitely increasing the value of the company. After all, we are talking about a listed issuer, whose shareholders want a better performance of the investment in this symbol".

He considers that what will happen to the Bucharest Stock Exchange in the coming years will practically influence everything related to the capital markets in Romania. "The Romanian stock market has omitted an important role, that of a source of funding to listed companies, and therefore, I personally think that the core notion of the strategy of the BSE for the future would be to increase the number of listed companies and the range of services it provides", Ioana Tănase said, and she went on to say: "Therefore, as a consequence, interest in the companies listed will attract more investors, Romanians as well as foreigners".

Ioana Tănase said: "More to the point, I think we need to provide support and consulting to the authorities involved in the privatization processes. There are still many discrepancies between the way these processes are taking place in Romania and on the international markets".

The representative of "UniCredit CAIB" considers that we need to adapt the local practices so that they resemble those which foreign investors are used to encountering on the mature capital markets. "I am not talking about commissions first of all, but rather about the basic concepts which are either absent in Romania, or are treated differently: - the "nominee account" model, - the procedures for the opening of an account, - the methods and the timing of the public offerings and the mechanism for the discovery and advertising of the price, - the taxation and quarterly filing of statements for capital gains - all of these things are actually true hurdles for potential foreign investors", he said.

As a conclusion, Mrs. Tănase said that in her view, her strategy would focus on a combination of: 1) aspects of communication, promotion, support and explaining the basic functions of the stock market and 2) providing concrete solutions to "technical" discrepancies which basically prevent a massive inflow of capital into Romania, especially in the case of reputed institutional investors.