ISSUE142
05.01.2016 Markit’s most shorted stocks throughout 2015 The current 20 most shorted companies saw shorts increase by 50 percent over 2015, according to Markit. Gamestop was the most shorted company globally with 47 percent of its shares out on loan. The game retailer saw consistently high shorting interest throughout 2015, with borrowing demand only up a modest 3 percent since the start of last year. Singapore-listed supply chain Noble Group saw the biggest proportional change in short interest over the year, which grew 120-fold over the past 12 months.
EBA finalises shadow banking and NSFR proposals for the EU The European Banking Authority (EBA) has finalised its guidelines on shadow banking entity exposure limits and recommended introducing the net-stable funding ratio (NSFR) in the EU. The shadow banking guidelines, which come into force on 1 January 2017, centre on the decision to allow EU institutions to set internal limits for their exposures to shadow banking entities. The EBA hopes this approach will address, in a proportionate way, the risks that these exposures pose to the EU banking sector. The guidelines will support institutions and banking supervisors across the EU in minimising the risks arising from exposures to entities that carry out bank-like activities outside regulated frameworks, according to the EBA.
For those institutions that do not have sufficient information on their exposures to shadow banking counterparties, the EBA will require a ‘fallback approach’ involving a fixed limit to all or some of these aggregate exposures. The EBA has focused the guidelines on entities that it considers to pose the greatest risks in terms of both the direct exposures institutions face and also the risk of credit intermediation outside the regulated framework. Shadow banking entities are defined by the EBA as entities that carry out credit intermediation activities (ie, bank-like activities involving maturity transformation, liquidity transformation, leverage, credit risk transfer or similar activities) without falling within the scope of consolidated supervision (or equivalent third-country legal frameworks). Continued on page 3
This massive jump makes the company the eleventh most shorted in Asia with 14.5 percent of its shares now out on loan. Continued on page 3
OCC issuing $39m refund to clearing members The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) will implement its approved capital plan this year, issuing a $39 million refund to clearing members and a dividend of $17 million to stockholder exchanges, and a new fee schedule marking a 19-percent drop in cost. Both the refund and dividend will be paid in Q1 2016, following OCC’s financial statements. The new fee schedule will take effect from 1 March. Shareholders’ equity will increase from $25 million to $247 million. The announcement comes after the US Securities and Exchange Commission approved the capital plan. Continued on page 3