The year 2025 brought not only spectacular returns for active investors on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE), but also a major increase in interest in financial savings instruments. This translated into the opening of more and more investment accounts with brokers.
The trend is a multi-year one, and both the number of trading accounts opened with brokers has increased dramatically since the pandemic, as has the number of investors in voluntary pension funds and mutual funds – the local asset management industry exceeding the threshold of 1 million investors last year.
The strongly positive dynamics of statistics show that an increasing proportion of Romanians have gone beyond the traditional bank deposit and discovered financial investments. Several factors contributed to this dynamic:
- the simplification of the procedure for opening accounts and subscribing to mutual funds;
- the galloping inflation in 2021-2022 and keeping it well above the NBR target, at a structural level;
- the increase in the budget deficit and the Government’s need to popularize government bond issuance through the Tezaur and Fidelis programs;
- the popularization of investments, including in cryptocurrencies, through media channels and various cultural channels;
- the historical highs of the BSE indices following each other weekly/monthly and exerting an attraction that individual investors find difficult to resist;
- the listing of Hidroelectrica following the sale of the 20% stake held by Proprietatea Fund and attracting many new investors,
- the generally high returns that BSE shares delivered in recent years, including thanks to the generous dividends paid by listed companies.
7 years ago, trading accounts for BSE were less than 100,000. Now they exceed 300,000
Romanians have been forced to a certain extent, with the high inflation in recent years, to find alternative methods of saving, since traditional bank deposits delivered negative real returns.
In this context, it is worth remembering that, before the pandemic, in 2018, the major objective of the Bucharest Stock Exchange management was to increase the number of investors to 100,000. Now, according to data of 9 months in 2025, BSE reached 274,412 accounts, an increase of 48,355 new accounts compared to the end of 2024 alone.
Government bonds finally develop secondary market, turning into a true alternative to stocks for investors with low-risk appetite
The issuance of government bonds through the Stock Exchange carried out by the Ministry of Finance, resumed in 2019 during the term of Florin Cîțu as minister, also contributed massively to the popularization of the Romanian Stock Exchange. The somewhat lower risk appetite of Romanian investors is seen in the fact that out of the 274,412 accounts at the BSE reported by the Compensation Fund at the end of September 2025, a number of 65,364 accounts (23.82% of the total number of investors) held only government bonds issued through the BSE by the Ministry of Finance.
The increase in the number of investors and the multiplication of bonds tradable on the BSE also supported the increase in average daily liquidity on the stock market, which reached RON 68 million in 2025 from RON 46 million in 2018.
At the same time, the secondary market for government bonds on the BSE has also inherently developed, which nevertheless remains relatively illiquid (very shallow, with few ISINs active in trading), especially when large investors come along who want to liquidate their holdings.
However, government bonds on the BSE have become an extremely relevant and sought-after alternative to stocks, especially for individual investors with a high degree of sophistication. In addition, the risk is theoretically zero (a state does not go bankrupt in its own currency), unlike stocks – the risk in bonds is limited to the risk of inflation, interest rates and “missing” any major rallies on the stock class such as the record one in 2025 (see BET chart – last day on chart 05.01.2026).
Active accounts number is much lower – this also explains the still low average daily liquidity
However, it should be noted that out of the total number of 274,412 accounts, the number of active investors is lower: in mid-2025 there were 139,700 active accounts with brokers, according to data from the Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF). The number is still growing strongly compared to the end of 2023, when there were only 84,687 active accounts with brokers. At the same time, at the end of the third quarter of 2024, the number of active client accounts with brokers was 117,000.
It should be noted that an account is considered active if at least one transaction has been made through it in the last six months. Moreover, the information published by the Investor Compensation Fund is based on data reported by the fund’s members and does not take into account whether an investor uses one or more intermediaries, so the total number of investors is lower.
Over RON 400 billion in BSE accounts. For the past 5 years, the Stock Exchange has been seeing the most successful period in its existence
It should be noted that the Stock Exchange grew strongly in 2024 and 2025. BET grew especially in the first part of 2024 – the second half of 2024 brought a moderation in BET’s annual advance, the correction taking place due to the uncertain result of the first round of the 2024 presidential elections, which was canceled after the anti-Western candidate Călin Georgescu came in first place.
After the repeat presidential elections in May 2025, with the victory of pro-European parties and the installation of a broad majority government to reduce the budget deficit, we had a major rally from the end onwards (see graph).
This led to a major increase in the value of BSE portfolios:
- small investors, with portfolios under EUR 20,000, reached 184,689 in September. They had a cumulative portfolio value of RON 3.89 billion, while the average portfolio was, at the end of September 2025, EUR 4,651, up from EUR 3,929 at the end of 2024;
- average investors, with portfolios of over EUR 20,000, reached 88,254 in September, a historic high, up 28.3% from the end of 2024, when the number of accounts in this category was 68,784. They had a cumulative portfolio value of RON 80.79 billion, with an average portfolio of EUR 212,246, up from EUR 190,245 at the end of 2024;
- large investors reached only 1,469 in September 2025, with an average portfolio value of EUR 47.95 million, up 14.8% compared to the end of 2024. The cumulative value of the portfolios in these 1,469 accounts was EUR 329.63 billion (+9.47% compared to June 2025).
Mutual funds also gain popularity, reaching over 1 million investors in 2025
Meanwhile, the investment fund and asset management industry in Romania ended the third quarter of 2025 with a record number of investors, triple compared to 2022, according to statistics from the Association of Fund Administrators (AAF).
The evolution came against the same backdrop of increasing physical appetite for financial investments, amid the increasing attractiveness of savings-investment instruments.
AAF statistics show that the industry has surpassed the threshold of one million investors and exceeded RON 53 billion in assets under management, an advance that far exceeds the pace of previous years.
In total, nearly 250,000 new investors entered the market in the last year alone. At the same time, compared to 2024, the wealth of these investors in open-end funds increased by over 23% last year and reached over RON 32 billion, thanks to the fact that the historical highs of the BSE indices follow each other weekly.
According to AAF, bond funds remain dominant structurally, with almost half of the market, but equity funds began gaining ground and attracted over 30% more investors in 2025 than in 2024. In turn, voluntary private pension funds (Pillar III) attracted over 152,500 new investors (+18) in the first 11 months of 2025 compared to the end of 2024, and recorded an increase of over 30% in total assets, up to more than RON 7.1 billion (this is also due to the profitability of investments).
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