The UK Short Selling Regulations 2025

Friday January 17 2025

The UK has introduced significant updates to its Short Selling Regulations, approved by Parliament in January 2025. These changes, initially proposed in November 2024, aim to enhance transparency and oversight while aligning with the evolving needs of the financial markets.

Key changes in the new rules include:

1) The FCA will now publish a list of shares subject to short selling regulations, replacing the previous practice of exempted shares publishing.

2) The FCA now publishes anonymized aggregated net short positions (above 0.2% of issued share capital), instead of individual net short positions exceeding 0.5%.

3) Debt and sovereign credit default swaps will be subject to enhanced monitoring.

Take a look at the draft rule amendments: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2025/29/pdfs/uksiem_20250029_en_001.pdf