U.S. – FINRA Enhanced Short Selling Reporting

U.S. – FINRA Enhanced Short Selling Reporting

On 4 June 2021, FINRA requested comment on short selling reporting changes.

  • FINRA requested comment on potential enhancements to short selling reporting program.
  • Proposed enhancements to its short interest position reporting rules.

Short Sale Reporting Proposal

  • Modifications proposed to FINRA short interest reporting requirements, to consolidate publication of short interest data reported to FINRA for both listed, unlisted securities.
  • Considered changes to data fields firms required to complete, additional data points.
  • Additional data points included proprietary, customer account categorization; account-level position data; synthetic short positions; loan obligations from arranged financing;
  • Also, total shares outstanding (TSO) and public float; and new threshold security field.
  • Requiring firms report short interest data more frequently (daily/weekly) considered.
  • Reduced processing time involved in disseminating short interest data was proposed.
  • New rule proposed to require that participants of a registered clearing agency report to FINRA information on allocations to correspondent firms of fail-to-deliver positions.

Effectiveness

  • Comments on proposed enhancements to short sale reporting due by 4 August 2021.