HM Treasury is regulating short selling—the practice of selling borrowed securities with the intention to repurchase them at a lower price—to enhance market integrity and financial stability. The regime involves new rules on disclosure, position limits, and restrictions on certain short selling activities, with recent focus on sovereign debt and credit default swaps. Current activity includes consultation on the Short Selling Regulations 2024 and related amendments to the Markets in Financial Instruments framework.
The government has published two draft Statutory Instruments for technical comment, alongside an accompanying policy note.
HM Treasury is announcing its intention to make further technical changes to its wholesale markets framework, as part of its broader set of capital markets reforms.
The government is publishing a draft statutory instrument to replace the Short Selling Regulation, a piece of retained EU law, for checks.
This statement accompanies the Financial Services Bill, introduced on 20 October, which makes amendments to the Benchmarks Regulation to cater for the orderly wind-down of a critical benchmark, such as LIBOR.