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clamour to make the rules more
efficient has been growing. Last
October, AIMA sent a letter to
ESMA asking for a centralised data
repository and reporting platform
to enable all reporting to be done
on the same system irrespective
of location as well as providing
information on which shares are
in scope of the SSR and the issued
share capital figure for each issuer.
It also asked for an extra 24 hours
to enable market participants to
report their positions.
Robinson says that its members
are also in favour of the public
disclosure requirements to be
removed, or at least replaced
with an anonymous system which
would have aggregated public short
R E V I E W
position data rather than showing
individually named investors.
And finally it seems that ESMA
might be listening. In July, the
regulatory authority launched a
consultation paper with plans to
update its short selling regulation—
partly in response to the market
calls for change.
“The analysis of the respons-
es to the consultation paper...in
2013 showed a desire and some
suggestions to review the rules on
short selling,” says a spokesperson
for ESMA. “Additionally, in their
response to the European Commis-
sion (EC) call for evidence on the
European regulatory framework in
2016 some industry representatives
questioned the appropriateness of
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S H O R T
S E L L I N G ]
maintaining the public disclosure
regime of net short position estab-
lished by the SSR.”
The consultation focuses on three
areas of the existing rules. Firstly
ESMA is reviewing exemptions for
market makers from the SSR. The
idea is to harmonise the definition
of market maker under MiFID II
with the SSR. It will also look at
the efficacy of emergency measures
to ban short selling in times of
market dislocation. However, the
most significant part of the review
focuses on the disclosure aspect.
ESMA has asked for advice on the
appropriateness of the “method
of notification and disclosure” of
short positions and whether this
could be made less burdensome
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