T-bills market not crowded

Only two securities companies are currently compliant with the requirements to operate on the T-bills market, with several mergers expected soon in order to form powerful securities companies.

The new regulation on operations with T-bills is an important step towards the development of the capital market, but its current form allows actual trading for only two securities companies, National Securities Commission (CNVM) chairman Gabriela Anghelache said.

“At present, only two securities companies, that is Gelsor and Societe Generale Securities Romania, are compliant with the requirements to operate on the secondary T-bills market.

The securities companies did not believe they will be allowed access to trading T-bills so that they did not take appropriate steps to have their capital increased or to form mergers.

We have signals that mergers are in store in order to build powerful securities companies to be accepted as brokers on the T-bills market,” Anghelache added.

The securities companies wanting to become brokers on the primary T-bills market are required to have at least 75bn lei in share capital, while the main requirement for those wanting to operate on the secondary market is to have at least 37.5bn lei in capital.

The authorisation of the securities companies as brokers falls upon the three institutions involved (NBR, the Finance Ministry and CNVM), within 45 days since the enactment of the regulations regarding the framework for carrying out T-bills operations. Mediafax