The Romanian Commodities Exchange, the place where commercial transactions should generally be conducted is, after 16 years, still in a burgeoning stage of development. The low volume of transactions is RCE's main problem, alongside legal errors, according to the new management.
"The hardest thing to do at the RCE is to build a critical mass, a liquidity limit. If an administrative measure was taken, to force merchants to conduct transactions solely on the Commodities Exchange, we could surpass this threshold. However, in a country like Romania, the government is afraid of being accused of creating an artificial market, although such measures have also been taken in more developed countries. RCE has been in this impasse, for years," said the new chairman of the institution, Septimiu Stoica, who was chairman of the Bucharest Stock Exchange until November last year. The number of contracts closed at the RCE in the first half of the year stood at 1,265 and amounted to 200 million euros. The institution's goal for this year is to trade volumes worth 1.5 billion euros, up 150% against last year. In comparison, Romania's trade amounted to around 80bn euros last year. The General Meeting of Shareholders voted a new structure to the Board of Directors at the beginning of August, a new chairman of the commodities exchange and a new chief executive, Gabriel Purice. The current management replaces the one appointed at the beginning of the year.
Radu Popa, chairman and chief executive officer of RCE in the first half of 2008, brought the institution from the red into the black, and, before being removed from his position, he filed a complaint against the former management with the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA), the Fiscal Authorities and the Court of Accounts, amid irregularities found in a financial audit.
Engineer Mircea Filipoiu, whose activity is now being examined by a court of law, managed the Romanian Commodities Exchange (which in 2007 registered turnover worth 3 million euros and losses worth 1.5 million euros) since its establishment until January. There is too little official information about what actually went on before 2008, but, after the management changed within six months, the exchange has started to function better.
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