Moldova Stock Exchange

BVM was founded in December 1994, and the first trades took place on 26 June 1995 — the day considered the exchange’s “birthday.” Its founding involved 34 founders, professional participants in the securities market.

In its early years, the exchange was closely tied to the mass privatization process. Through this process, some 1.400 enterprises were converted into joint-stock companies and privatized. At the time the exchange launched, there were, alongside these, dozens of investment funds and trust companies, and the number of shareholders exceeded three million.

With Law no. 171/2012 on the capital market, admission rules tightened, and the number of companies listed on the exchange fell significantly. This legacy raises a question many people still have today — about the certificates they received back then.

Many Moldovans keep paper certificates at home received in the ’90s: shares in joint-stock companies or bonds. The natural question is: are they still worth anything, and what can you do with them?

How people came to have them

In the early ’90s, the state distributed patrimonial vouchers to every citizen — a kind of privatization “ticket”, whose size was calculated based on length of employment. With these vouchers you could buy shares directly at auctions or, most often, hand them over to an investment fund or a trust company, which pooled the vouchers of many people and bought share packages on their behalf.

What guarantees existed, and why many ended up with nothing

Patrimonial vouchers gave the right to participate in privatization — not a guarantee of gain or of value. The value depended on the company or fund the money ended up in. Many investment funds consolidated, were liquidated, or reorganized into joint-stock companies, and some enterprises went bankrupt. That is how some people ended up with shares that were worthless or hard to sell. This is a pattern common to all voucher privatizations across the former Soviet states, not a Moldovan particularity.

The state provided the legal framework and a regulator (CNPF), plus a system that still keeps records of share ownership today. What did not exist — and could not have existed — was a guarantee of value: that depends on company performance, not the state.

What the situation is now and how to check

The good news: the record of who owns which shares is preserved. It is kept either by the Central Securities Depository (DCU) or by a registry company. CNPF publishes the list of which entity keeps the registry for each company, so the first step is to find out where your company is registered. Then request an account statement — the document confirming whether you still hold the shares, and how many. For inherited certificates, ownership is clarified through a notary.

If the company still exists, you may be entitled to dividends or may be able to sell the shares through an investment firm. If the company has been dissolved, the shares probably no longer have value. Important to know: there is no mechanism that compensates for historical privatization losses — the investor compensation fund (up to the equivalent of 1.000 EUR) covers the bankruptcy of a licensed investment firm, not companies that closed down over time.

Beyond the legacy of the past, here is how the exchange is organized today. The same institution runs two trading venues — the term used in European legislation for the organized venue where trades are concluded — each with different rules, and the difference matters directly to you as an investor.

The regulated market

This is the trading venue with the strictest requirements. For share admission, the law generally requires predictable capitalization or own capital of at least the equivalent of one million euros, and a free-float of at least 10%. Issuers have extensive transparency and reporting obligations. This is where, for example, corporate bond issues from banks and government securities are admitted.

The multilateral trading facility (MTF)

The MTF is a trading venue with more relaxed admission requirements, designed for companies that do not meet the regulated market's thresholds. This is where you find shares of a number of joint-stock companies, some admitted provisionally. It is also supervised by CNPF, but offers issuers simpler access.

What this means for you

Generally, you don't choose the trading venue yourself — you buy an instrument, and it is already listed on one of them. Still, the difference tells you two useful things before you buy: how many transparency obligations the issuer has and, as a rule, how easily you'll be able to sell it later. A share on the regulated market comes with a more transparent issuer and stricter rules; one on the MTF, with more relaxed requirements. Before you buy, check where the instrument is listed — on the regulated market or the MTF. It's a signal about what you're buying and what risk you're taking on.

The exchange's current activity is concentrated on a few types of instruments. The most visible are corporate bonds — for example, issues from commercial banks — and government securities admitted to trading, alongside a small number of shares on the MTF.

BVM is authorized by CNPF as a market operator and regulated market. Law no. 171/2012 on the capital market sets the operating rules, including a minimum own-capital requirement of the equivalent of one million euros for the market operator (art. 61).

Since 2021, BVM has faced difficulties meeting this requirement. The compliance deadline was extended by Law no. 177/2025 to 14 September 2026.

Individuals do not trade directly on the exchange. Access is through an intermediary — an investment firm licensed by CNPF — which receives and transmits orders. The full list of intermediaries is published in the register of licensed entities on the CNPF website (the official source, not forums).

One thing to expect: at the local exchange, access through an intermediary is order-oriented, not built around a modern app with real-time charts. That experience — a platform, a mobile app, live charts — is offered by regulated international brokers and, in the future, the new Moldova International Exchange.

It is easy to confuse the two. The Moldova Stock Exchange is the existing exchange, dating from 1995. The Moldova International Exchange (BIM) is a new project, currently in the authorization process at CNPF, built in partnership with the Bucharest Stock Exchange.

Details on the new exchange, the timeline, and what it means for companies and investors are on the dedicated page: Moldova International Exchange.

For an investor in Moldova, the local exchange today offers a limited number of instruments. That does not mean the local market is pointless: government securities, for example, remain an accessible, low-risk instrument, and the admission of corporate bonds shows a market that is moving.

For diversification and access to more liquid instruments, many investors also turn to regulated international markets. The choice depends on goals, time horizon, and risk tolerance — which is why education and a conversation with a specialist help before any decision.

Compare the real options available locally on the page Invest in Moldova, or see how to access global markets through regulated brokers.