Record trading on Bucharest forex market: 356bn euros

Last year, transactions conducted on the Bucharest forex market totalled 356.6 billion euros, around twice as much as in 2006, according to data from the NBR (National Bank of Romania). In comparison, transactions conducted on the Bucharest Stock Exchange amounted to just 5 billion euros. Operations performed on the forex market were around 3 times as high as Romania’s GDP (estimated at 118 billion euros last year). The bulk of trading on the Bucharest market, however, resulted from operations conducted by financial investors, while the volumes generated by companies saw a much slower increase. “If we consider the volumes traded on the interbank market, as well as those that involved clients, non-residents account for around two thirds of operations. The bulk of the transactions with foreign clients are forex swaps,” estimates Bogdan Mihoc, head of UniCredit Tiriac Bank’s treasury. However, the NBR does not breakdown forex market data. Through swap transactions, players can more easily match their positions for various currencies, i.e. cover their deficit or invest the excess sum. Since these operations entail both the sale and purchase of foreign currency, upon registration, they generate an artificial doubling of volumes. Sums that involve local companies are worth millions of euros at the most, while transactions that involve foreign clients are in the range of several hundreds of millions of euros.