Sweden’s Financial Conduct Authority (FI) has launched its short selling online reporting tool, a new system that will track the reporting of net short positions and replaces an archaic email-based system of disclosing positions.
The tool's primary advantage is that it offers a more efficient system for maintaining data integrity by making it possible to see into the system of positions that were reported earlier and recall incorrectly reported positions, according to FI.
The authority is reminding all holders of net short positions to create user accounts in the reporting portal. Users will then be able to log in with a Bank ID or via SMS.
Swedish companies are registered by entering their company identification number, and foreign companies are registered by submitting a form. In both cases, a legal entity identifier is mandatory.
It is possible to submit the reports by email for two weeks after the tool goes to market, but after that, it will no longer be possible to report net short positions by submitting a form via email.
Plans to scrap the outdated email-based method of reporting FI previously relied on werefirst outlined in July.
Sweden requires investors to provide notifications to FI of net short positions crossing certain thresholds under the EU’s Short Selling Regulation and FI publishes significant positions in shares from the previous day.
The threshold for reporting short positions was lowered from 0.2 percent of the issued share capital to 0.1 percent as part of the European Securities and Markets Authority’s (ESMA) effort to combat market disruption caused by the pandemic in March.
ESMA recently extended the period that this lower threshold will be in effect for until 17 December to offset concerns of a second wave of COVID-19.
