Bucharest Stock Exchange and Depozitarul Central launch the online Investors Enrollment Platform

BUCHAREST, Romania, Aug. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) and Depozitarul Central continue the digital transformation efforts by launching the Investors Enrollment Platform with the help of its partners, Aurachain and eVOTE. Through this platform, following an identification procedure for individuals, user accounts are created, enabling investors to participate online and vote electronically at the General Shareholders Meetings organized by the companies listed on BVB. This new digital solution was created by Aurachain, a low-code development platform that helps businesses to rapidly digitize their operational processes. As part of the project, eVOTE provides the first online and physical participation solution for the General Shareholders Meetings, introduced in Romania more than two years ago and currently used by over 20 companies listed on BVB.

In a first phase, the Investors Enrollment online platform is available from any Internet-connected desktop or laptop using the Google Chrome web browser through the following link https://www.roclear.ro/Inrolare-Investitori or directly from Depozitarul Central's homepage at https://www.depozitarulcentral.ro. The user account is created through a facial identification process or using a digital signature for holders of certified digital certificates. The solution will enable listed company shareholders to benefit easier from the services of capital market institutions, using a user account and a single point of contact. By using their login credentials, investors can participate online and vote electronically at the General Shareholders Meetings conducted by companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange that use the eVOTE Platform and where the investors own shares.

The partnership between BVB, Depozitarul Central, and eVOTE will improve the operational efficiency of publicly traded companies by lowering the administrative workload and costs associated with conducting the General Shareholders Meetings. At the same time, companies' shareholders that use the eVOTE Platform will be able to vote much more rapidly, with a single click, and to participate in such meetings from anywhere as long as they are internet-connected.

The Investors Enrollment Platform can be used in the future for various purposes, such as facilitating some services for investors, including online access to additional services offered by Depozitarul Central - for example, obtaining account statements.

"The pandemic episode we went through launched one of the most interesting challenges: accelerated digitalization in all fields. Depozitarul Central has always invested massively and sustainably in automation and digitalization to ensure high-quality services, but above all, to provide solutions for our customers' benefit and comfort. The launch of the Investors Enrollment Platform, with access to the eVOTE electronic voting service, is a natural step in the development, optimization and modernization of the services offered to the partners of Depozitarul Central. This platform will be improved and completed with all the facilities an investor needs, depending on the opportunities we will identify. We are happy to be able to offer, together with Bucharest Stock Exchange, this very important and useful service for all actors involved in the Romanian capital market," said Silvia Buicanescu, Depozitarul Central CEO.

"It is obvious that we can no longer talk about the capital market without referring to digitalization. The project that is now operational, the Investors Enrollment Platform, developed with Aurachain partners and colleagues from Depozitarul Central, represents a step forward in simplifying the access to the capital market for investors. As the first step, the platform will digitize the process of investor participation in the General Shareholders Meetings of companies listed at the stock exchange and the voting process, carried out through eVOTE - the online system for participating in the General Shareholders Meetings. Subsequently, the benefits of the platform will be extended to the development of other digital services for investors. Bucharest Stock Exchange has always searched to identify technological solutions that facilitate investors' and issuers' access to the capital market, and the launch of this platform surely contributes to that goal," said Adrian Tanase, Bucharest Stock Exchange CEO.

"The collaboration between eVOTE and BVB through Depozitarul Central as the first utility service of the Investors Enrollment Platform represents a significant step in the direction of the development of the capital market in Romania by digitizing the services offered to shareholders of listed companies. Starting today, shareholders will have a simplified method of participating in the general meetings and will be able to vote much more quickly on the points that define the future of the companies in which they invest. Through eVOTE, both companies and their shareholders are assured that the votes cast are counted and calculated accordingly. This transformation of the way of participation and voting brings the technology of the years 2022 to the process of a GSM and creates fundamental premises for the application of transparency and good corporate governance specific to companies listed on the BVB. During the busiest time of year for BVB-listed companies, January through May 2022, on the eVOTE Platform there were organized 50 General Shareholders Meetings, 37 of which were annual. All events were live-streamed, with no lag between the virtual and physical environments," said Mihai Chisu, Governance Partners CEO, the company that manages the eVOTE Platform.

"Digitalization and process automation have been shown to notably improve operational efficiency, and we now see that this might have a considerable impact on Romania's capital market. Bucharest Stock Exchange and Depozitarul Central have maximized the possibilities of the low-code Aurachain platform to develop the Investors Enrollment Platform significantly faster than traditional development methods would have allowed. Bucharest Stock Exchange will continue to benefit from the advantages of our platform through the real-time visibility of the entire process, the high level of security, as well as the ability to quickly make changes and improvements to meet the needs of the market," said Adela Wiener, Aurachain CEO.

About Bucharest Stock Exchange

Bucharest Stock Exchange runs markets for shares, bonds and other instruments, through regulated platforms and alternative systems, and provides a wide range of services to participants of financial markets. Bucharest Stock Exchange is a public company, listed on its own market since 2010.

The cumulative market capitalization of all companies listed on Bucharest Stock Exchange (local and international) exceeds EUR 42.2bn, and the cumulative value of bond issues listed on the BVB amounts to EUR 17.2bn.

Romania has become increasingly visible internationally and has been present, since June 20th, with 12 companies in the Russell FTSE index dedicated to emerging markets. The 12 companies are: Banca Transilvania, Nuclearelectrica, OMV Petrom, TeraPlast, One United Properties, MedLife, Transport Trade Services, Purcari Wineries, Conpet, IMPACT Developer & Contractor, Sphera Franchise Group, and Aquila.

For more information on Bucharest Stock Exchange, please refer to www.bvb.ro

About Depozitarul Central - Romanian Central Securities Depository

Depozitarul Central provides central maintenance of securities accounts services, clearing settlement services for financial instruments traded on different trading venues, cross-border settlement services through links established with other CSDs, securities borrowing and lending operations. It also provides notary services (initial recording of securities in book-entry system), standardized corporate event processing and other services for issuers and holders of financial instruments.

Depozitarul Central is a share holding company, member of the Bucharest Stock Exchange group and carries out its activity according to the provisions of CSDR (Regulation (EU) no. 909/2014.

For more information on Depozitarul Central, please refer to www.depozitarulcentral.ro

About Aurachain

Aurachain empowers organizations to rapidly build digital process applications through a powerful low-code platform. Streamlined workflows and exceptional interfaces directly capture the expertise of subject matter experts, business analysts, and professional developers to deliver real business value from day one. Enterprise organizations and governments alike use Aurachain to reduce development timelines, optimize business operations, and accelerate innovation.

The Aurachain platform is owned by Aurachain AG, a Swiss company with local offices in Europe (Switzerland, UK, Romania), the Middle East (Dubai) and USA (California).

For more information on the Aurachain low-code platform, please refer to www.aurachain.ch or watch this video presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjhQxkwEQOc

Follow on LinkedIn for more updates from Aurachain.

About eVote

eVOTE is a complete solution for carrying General Shareholders Meetings. It includes all the options to participate in the meeting by mail, online, or in person, and integrates all the votes into a single platform that is user-friendly for shareholders and companies and last but not least is secure data protection wise. Developed by Governance Partners, a company founded in 2018 by the union of capital markets and IT specialists, eVOTE is the first application that aims to modernize through technology the way investors interact with the major institutions of the capital market for a simpler and more efficient coordination.

For more information on the eVOTE platform, please refer to www.evote.ro 

For additional information:

Irina Pocovnicu, CMO, Aurachain, Irina.pocovnicu@aurachain.ch, +40 729 218 570
Bianca Dascalu, Marketing and Communication, Bucharest Stock Exchange, bianca.dascalu@bvb.ro
Diana Predescu, Public Relations and Marketing, Depozitarul Central, publicrelations@depozitarulcentral.ro

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