Short selling ban on Wirecard expires 23 April 2019Munich Reporter: Maddie Saghir
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The short selling ban on Wirecard expired on 18 April, following the halt put in place in February by the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin)
According to BaFin, Wirecard’s falling share price caused uncertainty in the market, and they indicated the decrease in share price occurred between 30 January and 15 February 2019.
BaFin notified the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) on 17 February 2019 of its intention to make use of its powers of intervention, introducing an emergency measure, which bans opening or increasing net short positions on shares issued by Wirecard—either directly or through related instruments, for a duration of two months.
The ban received some backlash; Fahmi Quadir, founder and CIO of Safkhet Capital Management LLC, criticised it in a letter addressed to Jean-Pierre Bussalb, head of short selling section.
Quadir called the ban “bizarre” and “backwards”, and noted that as a trading strategy, short selling is widely acknowledged as beneficial and a necessary countervailing force to maintain market efficiency.
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