* The investigation on structured products reached the end
* BCR did not fulfill its obligations as liquidity provider in 136 cases
The capital market watchdog yesterday levied fines, after reviewing the trades involving structured products issued by "Erste Bank", for which the Romanian Commercial Bank (BCR) was a liquidity provider.
The Commission said: "Between June 2011 and January 2012, the Romanian Commercial Bank, in its position as liquidity provider, has broken parameters applicable to the liquidity providers in 136 cases, according to the analysis conducted by the Bucharest Stock Exchange at the request of the CNVM".
Thus, Valerian Ionescu, Valerian Ionescu, the head of the Trading And Sales Of Financial Instruments Tradable On Regulated Markets department at BCR, and Valentin Ionescu, general manager of the BSE, were fined 5,000 lei each, as the Commission thought that even though they could have prevented the aforementioned actions, they didn't.
The BURSA newspaper was the first to write, in October, that some investors had doubts that BCR was fulfilling its obligations as a liquidity provider for the turbo certificates (ed. note: "leveraged" certificates - which amplify the gains and losses obtained using the price variation).
In the beginning of this year, the Romanian Commercial Bank was sued by "Muntenia Imobiliare Development", which accused it of irregularities in its stock market operations. "Muntenia Imobiliare Development" filed a lawsuit against the Romanian Commercial Bank, accusing it of stock market irregularities.
Along with BCR, the lawsuit was also filed against its majority shareholder, "Erste Group Bank", and the Bucharest Stock Exchange.
In the case, the BSE is accused of not having thoroughly overseen the bank's activity, in her position of liquidity provider for the structured prod
