FCA simplifies short selling regime

The FCA has published its final rules simplifying the UK short selling regime, which aims to reduce the reporting burden on firms, while maintaining regulatory oversight.

The key changes are:

• Shifting to anonymised, aggregated public disclosure by issuer rather than public identification of individual short sellers;
• A new reportable shares list will identify which shares admitted to trading on UK venues are subject to reporting and covering rules, replacing the exempt shares list. Where issuers have multiple listed share classes, the list will specific the main class of ordinary shares for reporting;
• Streamlining the market maker exemption (MME) notification requirement so that it is activity-based – market makers will submit a single notification to rely on the exemption and an annual attestation confirming compliance with exemption conditions;
• Extending the reporting deadline;
• Retaining covering requirements as a settlement risk mitigation, and clarifying that firms must formally record arrangements and retain records for five years;
• Excluding UK sovereign credit default swaps from position reporting and covering requirements; and
• Enable bulk uploads covering multiple net short positions in one submission from 30 November 2026.