Covid-19 Coronavirus: Additional short selling rules announced by ESMA and AFM - 16 March 2020

• ESMA has lowered the threshold for short selling reporting from 0.2% to 0.1% so that financial regulators can more closely monitor the developments in financial markets linked to the on-going COVID-19 pandemic.
• The lower threshold applies specifically to notifications to the national regulator, which is the AFM in the Netherlands.
• The temporary reporting obligations apply to any natural or legal person, irrespective of their country of residence.
• The following exemptions apply:
  • shares admitted to trading on a regulated market where the principal venue for the trading of the shares is located in a third country;
  • market making; or
  • stabilisation activities.
• The AFM requires a movement of more than 0.1% to be notified with respect to positions that have not been previously disclosed.
• The additional net short position reporting threshold initially applies from 16 March 2020 until 16 June 2020, but this period may be extended if necessary.

For the AFM press release (in Dutch) click here. For the ESMA press release (in English) click here.

Questions on what this means for your business? Please contact Gerard Kastelein, Joost Elsenburg or David van Boven.