Reform has finally reached RASDAQ market

After coming on the verge of collapse and being subject to rumours about a possible liquidation, RASDAQ is now trying to set things straight in its own yard.

The National Association of Securities Companies (ANSVM), the organisation watching over RASDAQ, has a new trading regulation to radically change the looks of the secondary market.

The regulation intended to help this reform, however, failed to arouse the brokers’ admiration. On the contrary, many of them even had objections to make.

“The regulation is practically inconsistent. It makes trading more difficult and leaves room for interpretations,” says Radu Popescu, RASDAQ trader with BCR Securities.

The ANSVM chairman has a harsh reply though: “The regulation draft has been available for more than a year now.

The brokers had it posted on the web and had enough time to read it and come up with ideas. Now that the regulation has been endorsed by the National Securities Commission (CNVM), it’s too late for comments,” Vergil Popescu, ANSVM chairman, told Ziarul Financiar.

All this comes at a time when the financial situation of RASDAQ and ANSVM is not good. At the same time, the RASDAQ market is not supervised, which has led to a series of scandals in the course of time, such as the one about stock theft and the one of loans collateralised with overvalued shares.

Market sources say CNVM took a stand and demanded strict regulations for RASDAQ, but their endorsement stirred controversies.

“There is no way you can please everybody, no matter what you do, but we are still open to suggestions that may be included in the enforcement methodology. Many brokers may just be shying away from responsibility, perhaps they do not want to report or are afraid of the minimal net capital requirement.

I have had talks with the brokers, but I gave up after six or seven discussions and told them to do their own regulation because it is necessary. Lack of supervision is what brought RASDAQ where it is now,” Vergil Popescu said.

The most important change to be made by the RASDAQ trading regulation is imposing a “price tunnel”, which drastically limits the daily fluctuation of the trading prices during one session.

The transactions on RASDAQ used to be done by direct negotiations between brokers, with the stock quotes free to fluctuate however high or low during one day. This caused the over-the-counter market to register extreme fluctuations in almost every session.

For instance, on Wednesday’s session, one of the obscure companies on the market went up 1,500%, while another three doubled the price level, out of the blue.