This article was originally published 22 September, 2008

The Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") has issued an amendment to its emergency order ("Amended Order") banning short sales in financial companies, which was originally published and went into effect on September 18, 2008 ("Order"). Through the Amended Order, the SEC has approved technical amendments that were "made to ensure the continued smooth operation of orderly markets, and to coordinate to the extent possible with similar actions restricting short sales by foreign regulators." Specifically, the SEC is:

  • Modifying the list of included financial institutions - specifically, each national securities exchange listing financial institutions will identify and publish a list on its Internet website of individual listed companies with common equity securities covered by the Order (e.g., banks, savings associations, broker-dealers, investment advisers, insurance companies, whether foreign or domestic) (referred to as "Covered Securities");
  • Indicating that an issuer has the ability to "opt out" from being included on an exchange's list of included financial firms;

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