Dan Dascăl, CEO BT Asset Management, participated in The Investors Forum, organized by the newspaper Stock Exchange, where he spoke about the evolution of the investment fund market, the interest in recurring investments, but also about the prospects of the capital markets for the next part of the year:

About the investment funds market:

• The past year was a very good one for the investment fund industry, and the beginning of this year confirms this trend. The industry has surpassed the threshold of 1.2 million investors in investment funds in Romania, which reflects a very good market dynamic.
  
  
• The growth was determined by several factors. First of all, the investment paradigm in funds has changed significantly after the pandemic. Digitalization is increasingly present in our lives, so most of the investments made, both in funds and stocks, are carried out digitally, in a very simple and friendly way.
  
  
• An important role in this evolution was also played by recurring investments. At BT Asset Management, we have over 300,000 recurring investments, month after month. Thus, we have a very large number of investors who have understood that, by constantly saving a relatively small amount, over a longer time horizon, they can achieve very good results – a small fortune can even be accumulated in such an investment account.
  
  
• It is important to also consider the fact that we are starting from a relatively low base, which is why the results may seem spectacular. The percentage of GDP allocated to investment funds is still at a low level in Romania. Open investment funds, in which, as we said, the 1.2 million investors invest, amount to approximately 41 billion lei. In comparison, household deposits are approximately 410 billion lei, resulting in a ratio of 1 to 10 in favor of deposits over investments.
  
  
• In Sweden the ratio between investments and current accounts is somewhere around 80/20 in favor of investments. Logically, we can expect that in Romania these figures will also evolve in the same direction. The potential is very high, not only in investment funds, but also in stocks, pensions or insurance. The outlook is, therefore, one that makes us optimistic.

Expectations for the rest of the year:

• I have no particular reasons to be pessimistic. We observe both locally and globally that possible shocks – including recent ones – are absorbed quite quickly by the markets. The level of investor confidence in the stock market does not seem to have undergone major changes.
  
  
• In Romania, the situation has its own specifics: there are constant inflows of money from pension funds, and we at BT Asset Management also have significant cash flows from new investors, who are beginning to familiarize themselves with this type of investment.
  
  
• Obviously, we want to offer our clients more products and we believe that, in a medium to long term horizon, all types of investments will become interesting.