Germany Bans New Wirecard Short Sales in Unprecedented Move
- Regulator’s ban on new short positions runs through April 18
- Prosecutors investigate investor complaint of FT journalist
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Germany’s financial regulator took the unprecedented step of temporarily banning short sales of Wirecard AG shares following reports of suspicious accounting practices, while prosecutors in Munich expanded their investigation to include a Financial Times journalist.
Investors globally are immediately prohibited from taking new short positions or increasing existing ones through April 18, according to watchdog BaFin. That’s the first time it has banned short-selling on a single stock and harks back to the financial crisis, when the regulator prohibited naked short sales on 11 financial firms.