EFG Eurobank Securities, the brokerage division of Greece-based European Financial Group (EFG Group), which primarily deals with foreign investment funds, plans to expand onto the retail market of brokerage services.
The company's officials are counting on the extensive network established by its parent banks Bancpost, but believe expansion will require some additional efforts, both on the logistics segment, and in terms of research and trading.
"We plan to cover this segment and believe our company has considerable growth potential given the little used resources of EFG group and the bank. However, we will continue to focus on institutional investors, which are our traditional customers," Ioana Vladila, the general manager of EFG Eurobank Securities, told ZF.
The company ranks among the top ten brokerage firms on the Bucharest Stock Exchange in terms of turnover, with institutional investors, investment and hedging funds accounting for the majority of its customers.
EFG Securities officials say they plan to expand on the retail segment, but that the market is still not strong enough. They also intend to use the parent company's network to attract as many customers as possible and will target customers with above-average incomes.
The officials' vision has a much broader scope. They want to provide bank customers with integrated asset investment services, as available in Greece, where the group is based.
"We want customers who walk into our bank to be offered several investment options...," stated Laurentiu Floroiu, trading manager with EFG Eurobank Securities.
The two representatives of the brokerage firm are sceptical about the growth potential of the retail market over the following years. Floroiu maintains that a sustainable increase in the number of market players is required, the more so as Romanian institutional investors will also represent an ever stronger force through the emergence and development of pension and investment funds. There are just 30,000 active accounts on the Stock Exchange at present, far too few for Romania's population and in comparison to the statistics of the other Central European states.
EFG Eurobank Securities is the exclusive domestic partner of Auerbach & Grayson, a US brokerage firm. In fact, EFG representatives travel to the US several times a year to participate in road shows and present their investment offers for the Romanian stock market. Whereas just a few years ago the market's small scale prevented any attempt of attracting major investors on the Romanian Stock Exchange, things have improved and investment funds, with increasingly more diversified investment visions, are now present in Bucharest.
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