Nick Bayley, Managing Director and Head of Duff & Phelps’ Compliance and Regulatory Consulting practice says:
“With markets having been in freefall across the globe, some regulatory authorities have looked to short selling bans in an attempt to steady their markets, and the Spanish and Italian authorities’ bans have been duly implemented by the FCA. However, the FCA has not itself banned short selling of any UK stocks yet and in my view is unlikely to do so, despite having the power under the EU Short Selling Regulation. In the height of the global financial crisis, the FCA did briefly ban the short selling of financial stocks and it led to significant price dislocations and confusion in the market. I fully expect that in this post-Brexit world, the ‘Northern European’ stance, that two views make a market and that short selling has a legitimate role, will continue to prevail here despite the market turmoil.”
