30 years after the reopening of the Bucharest Stock Exchange: memories, challenges and lessons of the first brokers who built the market, from paper transactions to the modern ecosystem. «The observations arrived by fax in Cluj, the answers came with the train locomotive driver. That's how we brought the first ten listed companies»

Three decades after the reopening of the capital market, the Bucharest Stock Exchange marks its anniversary through a series of events that bring together the people who built the industry, went through crises, lost, won and learned. It is a moment of remembrance for those who participated in the beginnings of the market, telling how the first years were, what lessons remained and why the investments, once perceived as exotic, have today become quick operations, carried out over the phone with amounts of several tens of lei. The institution of the Stock Exchange was restored in 1995, after almost half a century of forced hiatus. Re-established on April 1, 1995, officially inaugurated on June 23 and with the first meeting on November 20, the stock exchange started with 45 transactions and six listed companies. Since then, the capital market has transformed into an ecosystem that today serves more than a million investors in mutual funds and approximately 300,000 direct investors, with a total capitalization of almost 500 billion lei through almost 400 issuers – record figures at all levels.
«Good morning, yesterday's emotions have not passed today either, because today we have the honor of having you as participants, the brokers who created the market, who created the stock market, and even if the stock market was demutualized, brokers still create the market», said Remus Vulpescu, BVB CEO, at the opening of the panel. «Brokers know and say which products are the best in the market, which products are most needed in the market. And brokers for us are the essential link, the vital segment for attracting investors and calibrating financial instruments», Vulpescu said today at the BVB headquarters. The event was organized in two panels: the first, dedicated to veteran brokers; the second, to those who continue to develop it. Adrian Simionescu, president of SAI Muntenia Invest, participated in the first session; Valerian Ionescu, Head of Treasury of Product Management BCR; Lucian Isac, Estinvest CEO; Nicu Moroianu, former broker and vice-dean at ASE Bucharest; and the dialogue was moderated by Mariana Ciurel, member of the scholarship team for 20 years. «It is dedicated to an essential theme for understanding the course of the capital market in Romania: how brokerage services have evolved in the last 30 years of the stock exchange's existence,» said Mariana Ciurel. The enthusiasm of the beginnings For Adrian Simionescu, the first thing that remains in his mind about BVB from the 90s is the enthusiasm. «It was much smaller than it is now, but there was extremely much enthusiasm and optimism, which made all the beginnings, which are usually difficult, very easy for us. Brokerage is not an activity, it is a way of being. If you are a broker, you remain a broker for life. The microbe is like life, it is a way of being,» he said. Valerian Ionescu remembered the first day of trading, full of fear and uncertainty. «Everyone was stressed because you were dealing with other people's potential money. At first, people didn't even want to trade, so much was the fear. In the meantime, things settled down, we relaxed and moved on properly.» Nicu Moroianu, who participated in the first courses for brokers and assisted at the beginning of trading, told how it was actually working with the first listed companies. «We had to have some goods to put on the market, and that meant the analysis of the issuers' files by the stock exchange staff. The observations arrived by fax in Cluj, the answers came with the train locomotive driver. That's how we brought the first ten listed companies. After trading, we confirmed on paper and the next day those who had bought more than they sold had to go to the bank for settlement. That's how the weather was at that time.» Moroianu also spoke about the motivation to enter a completely new field: «It was the enthusiasm of youth, when you felt that you could do something. The stock market was a very good field, it did not start from zero, but from the existing level worldwide. We started with electronic trading and materialized shares, and instead of being in the ring, we were 28 people in front of a cage, like in a foreign language cabinet.» Lucian Isac remembered how his family and entourage got used to the idea of ​​the capital market. «My dad benefits a lot, he has a portfolio that gives him a decent living because I'm a broker. The stock market is a family. Looking at competitors – we are or have been competitors over time – we've remained friends, and that's what counts a lot. It's a way of life.» Entrepreneurial challenges Valerian Ionescu told about his personal beginnings: «I had finished university and saw that they were looking for personnel for trading. Initially they wanted to give up on me, but they realized that they needed my knowledge. I ended up doing business for the Austrians, this branch continuing even today at Erste Bank» For Adrian Simionescu, the path was more random. «In my first year of college, I was selected for a scholarship in France, where I visited the Paris Stock Exchange. I fell in love immediately. I returned to finish my college and since then we have tried to develop the capital market in Romania. Professor Florin Georgescu recommended me to contact George Constantin, Păunescu and Copos, and they supported the creation of the first brokerage company. Legislation was needed, because it did not exist. George Constantin Păunescu managed to put on the table the emergency ordinance 788, which described how to establish securities companies, the stock market and investment funds. Later, law 52 of 1994 and the National Securities Commission appeared.» Simionescu emphasized that these beginnings were not easy: «Most did not believe that a stock market could be established in Romania. Family and friends were skeptical, and we had to work and convince investors to participate.» Market jumps Among the defining moments of the capital market in the last 30 years, Adrian Simionescu identified two: «The first was when the most liquid shares – generally SIFs – and large companies came, and the second was the launch of the derivatives segment, which made the Sibiu Derivatives Exchange very active. Today, the lack of the derivatives market is felt.» Valerian Ionescu added that the evolution did not stop at shares: «We managed to offer other products to investors, including complex products and algorithmic trading. It is important to follow the other players in the market in order not to fall behind, to remain in the big league.» Memories from the first offices and transactions Lucian Isac spoke about the modest conditions from the beginning: «Estinvest was operating in a rented space on the ground floor of a block, two offices shared with someone else. Communication was via dedicated wire, there was no internet. We knew the phone numbers of the other traders by heart. I remember how people came with blue certificates in their hands to sell them or take their money.» Adrian Simionescu recalled how the stock market microbe took hold even in the face of obstacles: «Most investors only wanted to sell the piece of property received from the state. We had to educate the market, explain and demonstrate the value of long-term investments.» Nicu Moroianu added: «You had to transfer individual accounts, verify identity, confirm transactions on paper. It was an exhausting process, but essential for the functioning of the market.»
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