On July 27, 2009, the SEC announced its intention to permit the expiration of interim final temporary rule 10a-3T (the “Rule”), which currently requires certain institutional investment managers to report short sale information to the SEC on Form SH. The Rule and Form SH are set to expire on August 1, 2009. As a result, the final Form SH filing date is July 31, 2009.
Instead of renewing the Rule, the SEC is working to increase the public availability of short-sale related information through a series of other actions described below:
- Daily Publication of Short Sale Volume Information. The SEC expects that in the next few weeks, self regulatory organizations (“SROs”) will begin publishing on their Web sites, daily aggregate short selling volume in each individual equity security.
- Disclosure of Short Sale Transaction Information. The SEC expects that in the next few weeks, the SROs will begin publishing on their Web sites on a one-month delayed basis information regarding specific individual short sale transactions in all exchange-listed equity securities.
- Twice Monthly Disclosure of Fails Data. The SEC expects that in the next few weeks, it will enhance the publication on its Web site of fails to deliver data so that fails to deliver information is provided twice per month and for all equity securities, regardless of the fails level.
If you have any questions concerning the SEC’s announcement discussed above, please contact an attorney in the investment management or capital markets groups at Seward & Kissel.
