The Proprietatea Fund to takes its complaint against the Bucharest Stock Exchange and the Central Depository to the Competition Council

• The Proprietatea Fund claims the Central Depository raised its fees abusively

• Rareş Nilaş, DC: "Most of the new commissions have been imposed by the Bucharest Stock Exchange"

The management of the Proprietatea Fund yesterday vehemently criticized the decision of the Central Depository to raise the commissions it charges for transactions involving shares of the Fund, and it announced it is considering the avenues of attack it has available for challenging the increase of the commissions by the Central Depository, including notifications sent to the Competition Council.

The increase of the commissions perceived by the Central Depository for trades involving stock in the Proprietatea Fund was decided in last week"s General Assembly at the last minute, and it came into effect on June 1st. The proposal to increase fees came at from the current board of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, which is the majority shareholder of the Depository.

The management of the Proprietatea Fund dubbed the action of the Depository as "abusive, excessive and without any practical justification".

Ionuţ Popescu, the general manager of the Fund and holder of 19 million shares in the fund said: "The people of the Depository had the revelation that the most trades are done with the shares of the Proprietatea Fund and that"s where the bulk of commissions comes from. The increase of the fees affects any shareholder of the Fund that wants to buy and sell shares in it. I am not concerned with the fact that there are people doing speculative transactions and that the people involved have acquired those shares from other buyers. I now need to defend the interests of all shareholders. I for one am not too affected by the higher commissions because I haven"t personally sold or bought stocks, I am waiting for the Fund to be listed".

Rareş Nilaş, member in the Board of Directors of the Depository said for BURSA, that the decision to raise the commissions was motivated by the desire of the Bucharest Stock Exchange to balance the revenues and expenses: "Many of the commissions which were increased after the General Meeting which was held last week were imposed by the Bucharest Stock Exchange".

I for one am not in favor of such a sudden raise of commissions because any such action usually leads to shrinking business. It"s absurd to say that the Bucharest Stock Exchange has forced the Depository to raise its commissions to force the listing of the Fund. The Fund will get listed anyway. The goal was to stabilize the balance sheet of the Depository".

For a transfer of 100,000 lei worth of stock, according to the new commission schedule, the Depository will charge a fee of 1.5%, but no less than 100 lei. Last year the commission was 1%. For a transaction of a maximum of 1 million lei, the Central Depository will charge 1,500 lei and 1% of any amount that exceeds 100,000 lei. For comparison"s sake, the commission perceived before June 1st was 0.5%.

For packages of stocks worth 10 million lei, the Central Depository will charge a fee of 68,500 lei, plus 0.55% of the value of stocks that exceed 10 million lei, as opposed to the 0.05% of the value of shares transferred its used to charge previously.