EU Short Selling Regulation - an overview

The EU Short Selling Regulation has been finalised and is due to be published in the Official Journal by mid to late March 2012 (it was originally due to be published by the end of January). It introduces a pan European disclosure regime for net short positions in EEA listed shares and sovereign debt, as well as a ban on naked physical short sales of EEA listed shares and sovereign debt, and a ban on credit default swap positions in EEA sovereign debt which, broadly speaking, do not serve to hedge exposure to the underlying debt (so called naked CDS positions). The Regulation will come into force the day after it is published in the Official Journal, but its provisions will not apply until 01 November 2012.