Depozitarul Central – the Romanian CSD, a member of the Bucharest Stock Exchange group, ensures that transactions on the Romanian capital market meet EU and international standards. Launched in 2007, Depozitarul Central is a fundamental institution of the Romanian capital market which provides clearing and settlement of the financial instruments transactions and keeps record of the issuers’ registries. It is also the only Romanian institution authorized to allocate ISINs (International Securities Identification Numbers) and CFI (Classification of Financial Instruments) codes according to ISO standards. It is a member of the European Central Securities Depositories Association and of the Association of National Numbering Agencies. Director General Silvia Buicanescu discusses recent developments in Romania’s capital market and highlights the market’s investment potential.
European Times: What is the main mission of Romania’s Central Depository?
Silvia Buicanescu: Depozitarul Central’s fundamental objective is to create a strong Romanian capital market in line with EU standards and to play a role in European capital-markets initiatives. A capital market cannot exist without a CSD, which completes all stock-exchange transactions, keeps records on issuing companies, and provides services to holders of financial instruments.
European Times: What are some of your current projects?
Silvia Buicanescu: Depozitarul Central is implementing the EU Regulation 909/2014. The new, harmonised EU Regulation of Central Securities Depositories will bring a range of benefits, such as the alignment of activities, procedures, practices and rules with the new harmonised regulatory framework in order to provide services in a competitive environment.
Depozitarul Central migrated to the pan-European settlement platform, Target 2 Securities (T2S), in the first wave in 2015 and can now offer innovative services, comparable with those in other European markets, for the Euro settlement. In addition, the European best practices integrated into this system could be extended at a later stage for settlements in the local currency. The next stage in the T2S project is to implement the A2A interface.
Depozitarul Central is implementing EU-standards for corporate actions processing, which will ensure that the communication between issuers and their investors will be improved and will follow a standard format and all entitlements, both in cash and securities, will be processed through Depozitarul Central, using the established key dates, thus cash and securities flows will be better managed as all payments for clients will be made by Depozitarul Central on a same-day basis.
Depozitarul Central is also improving its ongoing projects, like the dividends distribution service.
European Times: Does Romania’s non-banking financial sector represent opportunities for foreign investors?
Silvia Buicanescu: In recent years, Romania has made many upgrades in its capital-market infrastructure to reach EU levels, and now Romania’s capital market offers the same conditions as any other in Europe. Our capital market is young, flexible and open to rapid evolution. We can offer highly developed services customised to meet the needs of the local market.
European Times: What is your personal message to potential investors in Romania?
Silvia Buicanescu: Geopolitically and economically, Romania is an important name on the European map. There are many opportunities and advantages to be found in the Romanian capital market, and at Depozitarul Central, we are constantly developing new projects. We are raising the bar high to offer our customers and partners a wide range of business opportunities as well as tailor-made services and to facilitate investors’ access to trading. For these reasons, I invite all the potential investors to come and invest in Romania, where we have safe, secure and efficient post-trading services.
