Number: RS22099
Title: Regulation of Naked Short Selling
Authors: Mark Jickling, Government and Finance Division 
Abstract: When executed on a large scale, naked short sales can equal a large portion of total shares outstanding, and can put serious downward pressure on a stock's price. Critics of the practice characterize it as a form of illegal price manipulation. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2004 adopted Regulation SHO, a set of rules designed to control short selling abuses, focusing on small-capitalization stocks where the number of shares held by the public was relatively small. Until the current financial crisis, the SEC did not view short selling of large, blue-chip stocks as a problem. In July 2008, however, the SEC temporarily banned naked short sales of the stock of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and 17 other large financial institutions. On September 18, 2008, the SEC banned all short selling of the shares of more than 700 financial companies in an emergency action that expired on October 8, 2008. On October 1, the SEC adopted a rule requiring short sellers' brokers to actually borrow shares to deliver to buyers, within the normal three-day settlement time frame.
Pages: 6
Date: October 30, 2008