Dan Dascăl, CEO of BT Asset Management, took part in the Investors' Forum, organized by the newspaper Bursa, where he spoke about developments in the investment fund market, interest in recurring investments, and capital market prospects for the remainder of the year:

On the investment fund market:

• Last year was a very good one for the investment fund industry, and the start of this year confirms this trend. The industry has surpassed the threshold of 1.2 million investors in investment funds in Romania, reflecting very strong market momentum.
  
  
• Growth has been driven by several factors. First, the paradigm around investing in funds shifted significantly after the pandemic. Digitalization is increasingly present in our lives, so most investments—both in funds and in equities—are now made digitally, in a very simple and user-friendly way.
  
  
• Recurring investments have also played an important role in this evolution. At BT Asset Management we have over 300,000 recurring investments every month. We therefore have a very large number of investors who have understood that by setting aside a relatively small amount on a consistent basis over a longer time horizon, they can achieve very good results—even building up a small fortune in such an investment account.
  
  
• It is also important to remember that we are starting from a relatively low base, which is why the results may look spectacular. Allocations to investment funds as a share of GDP remain low in Romania. Open-end investment funds, in which—as I mentioned—those 1.2 million investors invest, total approximately 41 billion lei. By comparison, household deposits amount to roughly 410 billion lei, so a 1-to-10 ratio in favor of deposits versus investments.
  
  
• In Sweden, the ratio between investments and current accounts is somewhere around 80/20 in favor of investments. Logically, we can expect the figures in Romania to evolve in the same direction. The potential is very high, not only in investment funds, but also in equities, pensions and insurance. The outlook, therefore, makes us optimistic.

Expectations for the rest of the year:

• I have no particular reason to be pessimistic. We are seeing, both locally and globally, that any shocks—including the recent ones—are absorbed fairly quickly by the markets. Investors’ confidence in the stock market does not appear to have undergone major changes.
  
  
• In Romania, the situation has its own specifics: there are steady inflows from pension funds, and we at BT Asset Management also have significant inflows from new investors who are starting to familiarize themselves with this type of investment.
  
  
• Of course we want to offer our clients more products, and we believe that over a medium to long time horizon all types of investments will become attractive.