Short sales: improve transparency – but well considered

The European Securities and Markets Authority ESMA consults possible changes to the EU Short Selling Regulation. Among other things, ESMA is discussing an obligation for supervisory authorities to provide information on aggregate short selling positions in the market at regular intervals. We support this proposal, as it improves market transparency and could counter excessive short positions. However, the reporting thresholds and frequency must be defined in such a way that they do not generally make short selling unattractive.