Gov’t to publish guideline on stock short selling to prevent illegal trading

The government will publish detailed guidelines on stock short selling this week to help prevent people unintentionally engaging in illegal trading, the financial regulator said Wednesday. The guidelines will be made public Thursday, while an English-version of the how-to instructions will be available from next month, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). "There has been a need to remove uncertainties over how the financial authorities interpret and apply regulations on stock short selling, and to stipulate what may constitute as naked short selling," it said of reasons for the guidelines. There also existed a need for guidelines in English, the FSS noted, "since the financial authorities had only provided information in Korean." South Korea imposed a temporary ban on stock short selling in November after a series of naked short selling allegations were detected at several global investment banks in the country. The ban was originally set to be lifted before the start of July but has be en extended until March 30. The FSS said the new guidelines will provide a number of detailed instances of illegal stock short selling so that "any investor may decide on their own" whether their activities constitute illegal short selling. It also added the guidelines will be "continuously supplemented and updated." Source: Yonhap News Agency