The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has finalised new rules that mean hedge funds will now have to report significantly more information about their short-selling activities, according to a report by Bloomberg.
The new rules now require hedge funds and other big investors to report gross short positions in certain stocks at the end of each month when they reach a $10m average short position during the reporting month, or a 2.5% gross short position relative to total shares outstanding. The SEC will then aggregate positioning in equities across funds and publish that information with a delay.
An original proposal for a daily trigger for the new reporting requirements has been dropped by the SEC.
Other amendments to the original proposed rules mean that firms will have to report loans the day after they go into effect, rather than within 15 minutes as originally proposed, while details of loan amounts will be made public after 20 days rather than in real time.
The finalised rules were passed by the Commission on Friday with the Democrat commissioners out-voting their Republican counterparts in a 3-2 vote.
