Broker Cluj trying to turn shareholders into clients via fees

Autor: Andrei Chirileasa 26.09.2010

Broker Cluj (BRK), the only brokerage listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange has sent a letter to all its shareholders with accounts opened with other securities firms, offering them a 0.1% fee cut compared with those they are paying now if they become clients of the company and a 0.15% cut if they persuade an acquaintance to work with Broker.
Broker Cluj also explains how clients can move their stock portfolio from the company they are working with now to get the trading fee cut.
"The campaign was done by Broker's manager in Bucharest and its targets also included doctors, notaries and lawyers. All Broker shareholders got the offer, as did both clients we had and we still have," specified Grigore Chiş, general manager of Broker Cluj. He added the company had more than 20,000 shareholders and the total number of clients stood at several tens of thousands of people, though much fewer of them are active.
The marketing campaign started by Broker Cluj, however, raises questions about how the company got the shareholders addresses and whether or not it may use their addresses registered with the Central Depository for commercial purposes.