Volksbank Romania has joined the clearing - settlement platform RoClear, managed by the Central Depository, thus raising the total number of participants to 18, according to a press release from the Central Depository. Besides the 18 participating banks, the RoClear platform of the Central Depository is also open to 64 financial investment firms.
The Central Depository of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE) settled transactions worth 2.7 billion RON in the first six months of the year. The post-clearing value of the settled transactions amounted to 694.2 million RON. The Central Depository also managed over 158.9 billion financial instruments and 9.44 million owner accounts in the first half of the year.
The Central Depository has forecast a gross profit of 167,785 RON for the entire year 2009, 19 times less than what was reported for 2008, but still in line with the objectives set in the business plan for this year. The Bucharest Stock Exchange is the majority shareholder in the Central Depository with 51%. The Romanian - American Enterprise Fund holds 1.76%, while the five financial investment firms (SIF) and several banks such as BRD Soc-Gen, Raiffeisen Bank, BancPost and ATEbank hold the rest.