400 participants and 20 speakers at the seventh edition of the Individual Investors Forum organized by Bucharest Stock Exchange

Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB), the most important institution of the local capital market, and its partners jointly organized the seventh edition of the Individual Investors Forum, a key event dedicated to retail investors. On June 9th, 20 speakers delivered presentations and workshops dedicated to both potential and experienced investors.

“We aim to send a message as clear as it gets: the investment on the stock exchange can be as trivial as a bank deposit if certain rules are met. More than RON 70 billion are now kept in overnight bank deposits without producing enough value. Only through financial education can we get out of this passivity,” said Adrian Tanase, BVB CEO.

“The agenda of the Forum mirrors the interests expressed by individual investors, existing or potential, on such a major theme like investments. We always say that the stock exchange is for people, and now we bring it in the middle of the people. We want to present to the public real-life cases about what the investment experience means and to facilitate the access of those interested in the opportunities offered by the capital market,” stated Lucian Anghel, President of the Board of Governors of BVB.

The seventh edition of the Forum focused on the connection between the stock exchange, savings and investments. During the first part of the Forum, within the life-lessons in investment panel moderated by journalist Adrian Mirsanu, the investment idea was be approached from different perspectives: Sergiu Negut (business angel), Raluca Ganea (Investors Club), Vlad Deliu (NN Life Insurance), Ileana Gutu (PwC Romania). Asset managers – from Erste Asset Management, BRD Asset Management and OTP Asset Management – provided multiple answers to one question: What does it mean to invest? An important place at the Forum was given to companies listed on Bucharest Stock Exchange: speeches and presentations were delivered by MedLife CEO Mihai Marcu and representatives of Digi Communications N.V., a listed company on the Main Market of BVB on May 2017. Dan Rusu, Head of Research at Banca Transilvania, talked about news, trends and feelings when investing and how to know which piece of information is relevant when one decides to invest.

The latter part of the Forum included two different sessions, which took part simultaneously, as one targeted beginner investors and the other experienced investors. Mihai Nichisoiu, senior broker, Tradeville, talked about Donald Trump, risk or opportunity in international markets, while Irina Nistor from PwC Romania focused on the latest fiscal changes during the panel dedicated to experienced investors. For first-time investors, the panel included Adrian Mitroi, professor of Behavioral Finances at the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest, who spoke from his personal experience about what he learned from his mother and came in handy when investing. Later, the participants had the opportunity to get involved in an interactive workshop – moderated by Ileana Botez, Head of Listing at the Bucharest Stock Exchange, and Adrian Marin (broker at Tradeville) and Simion Tihon (senior broker at Prime Transaction) – on how to invest in the stock exchange.