英国FCA新卖空披露数据出现错误但不构成个股交易催化

Data errors mar UK regulator’s new short selling disclosure rules
New regulatory data released this week on short sellers’ bets against UK-listed companies contained several apparent errors, raising questions over the quality of the information being provided to the market under the new disclosure regime.
The Financial Conduct Authority published the data after new rules ended the practice of publicly naming hedge funds and investors holding significant short positions — bets that a company’s share price will fall. Instead, the regulator will now disclose the total short positions in a company on an aggregate basis.
But the new information published by the FCA contained several apparent errors, with positions subsequently removed or changed without a record, according to an analysis by data provider Breakout Point that was reviewed and confirmed by the FT.
The data also included years-old positions which are highly unlikely to still exist.
The findings raise questions over the quality of the FCA’s data, which is based on private submissions by investors about their short positions and is an important source of information for traders and regulators.
“The information that flows into the FCA is essential for market oversight and to identify misconduct,” said Chris Brennan, partner at law firm Dentons. “Market users have a reasonable expectation that what they see published is correct.”
Short positions against FTSE 250 IT infrastructure company Softcat were disclosed in an FCA report on Monday but were not included in an updated report on Tuesday. However, the change was not noted in a section setting out historic positions that have since been closed.
Tuesday’s report also listed different dates and sizes for short positions in four companies, including student accommodation provider Unite, without noting that these details differed from the information published on Monday.
One of the adjustments was made because a short seller’s position had been duplicated in the data, said a person familiar with the matter.
“Early-days issues are perhaps forgivable and things are already improving, but invisible corrections in an official market record should not become a habit,” said Ivan Cosovic, founder of Breakout Point.
The regulator’s reports on Monday and Tuesday contained other errors, with one of the documents being wrongly dated. They also appeared to omit some short positions which had been disclosed as active in the final report under the old disclosure regime, including shorts held by Saba Capital and Lombard Odier Asset Management.
Those positions had been disclosed as active last Friday but a person familiar with the matter said these positions had not been carried over in the latest disclosures as they were historic.
However, the regulator did publish details of some short bets that are more than five years old and are therefore unlikely to still be active or to be the same size as when they were previously disclosed.
For example, a short position in miner Critical Mineral Resources disclosed in April 2021 appeared to have been included on an anonymised basis in the FCA’s new report despite the company suffering an 87 per cent fall in its share price since the bet was first made public. Short sellers normally close their positions to secure a profit after a company’s share price drops sharply.
It is not known whether the potential errors were introduced by the FCA or stemmed from inaccuracies in data submitted to it by investors.
The FCA said it had considered the examples of potential errors raised by the Breakout Point analysis and concluded “there is no need for any revisions [to the data] at this point”.
It added: “The FCA monitors reported positions and engages with position holders where necessary to verify information and maintain the accuracy of published disclosures. We are also monitoring how the regime is operating and will consider whether changes are necessary.”
A person close to the FCA noted that its reports rely on the timeliness and accuracy of the information provided to it, and that it approaches firms to understand whether older reported positions remain valid.
The FCA has long published daily reports on hedge funds’ and asset managers’ short positions in UK companies.
Under the new rules, the regulator reports the total short interest in each company but it no longer discloses the size of each investor’s individual position or their identities.
The FCA will make a public disclosure when aggregate short interests exceed 0.2 per cent of a company’s share capital. It previously only published details of short positions of more than 0.5 per cent.