South Korea Aims to End Short-Selling Ban on All Stocks in March

(Bloomberg) -- South Korea’s top financial regulator said it plans to lift the ban on short selling at the end of March and will ensure that necessary rule revisions are in place by then.

The objective is to allow the strategy across all equities, not just in a limited number of stocks, Financial Services Commission Chairman Kim Byoung-hwan said Thursday. While the country had previously said that the prohibition would be extended to March 30, there was uncertainty about whether the popular trading practice would resume afterward or be subject to another ban extension, and also if changes would apply to all stocks.

“With the goal of resuming short selling on all stocks at the end of March next year, we are revising laws and will ensure the systems are in place,” Kim said, speaking to reporters in his first press conference since taking office in July.

Read: Korea Extends Short Ban, Threatens Life in Jail for Illegal Bets

Short sellers have been outlawed in the nation’s $1.9 trillion stock market since November, as the government sought to root out naked shorting — the practice of selling shares without borrowing them first — which is illegal in the country.

The curb was cheered by politically influential retail investors but has been controversial with market participants as the strategy is used by money managers around the world. MSCI Inc. said in its annual review that the country’s short-selling accessibility is “deteriorating.”

“It is a welcome development that South Korea’s policies are turning more market-friendly,” said Jung In Yun, chief executive officer at Fibonacci Asset Management Global Pte, a Singapore-based hedge fund.

Kim said lifting the prohibition would help remove one of the barriers in South Korea’s bid for a market upgrade from MSCI, which maintained the country’s status as an emerging market in its latest review. Kim emphasized that the ultimate goal isn’t just to win an upgrade but to lift capital market standards via the initiatives such as “Corporate Value-up” initiatives.

Authorities have sought to revise shorting rules that retail investors said were unfair to them and also to develop the electronic monitoring platform to detect illegal trades. Officials also planned to introduce harsher penalties, including a life term in prison for those profiting at least 5 billion won from such misdeeds.

Speaking on wide-ranging issues from the nation’s household debts and his recent visit to Japan to see that country’s corporate reforms, Kim said South Korea will “actively” review measures to improve its rules on how listed companies determine the ratios in the event of mergers.

His remarks come after Doosan Group, one of the nation’s oldest conglomerates, withdrew part of its merger plan between Doosan Bobcat Inc. and Doosan Robotics Inc. after a push-back from financial watchdog Financial Supervisory Service and investors. Doosan’s bids for restructuring through mergers were criticized for running afoul of the government’s “Value-up” initiatives and hurting minority shareholders.

(Updates with investor comment in fifth paragraph.)