ITALY: CONSOB bans Short Selling on Banca MPS shares for 3 months

Wednesday July 6 2016

CONSOB, the Italian financial regulator, has announced that it will ban net short positions on Banca MPS shares (ISIN: IT0005092165) for a period of 3 months. The prohibition shall apply from 7 July 2016 until 5 October 2016 and also affects derivatives and market makers.

The prohibition on net short positions strengthens and extends the ban on short selling adopted on 5^th July, as the new prohibition bans both short selling on Banca MPS shares and short positions taken through single stock derivatives on Banco MPS shares.

The ban applies to all transactions, irrespective of where they have been carried out (on an Italian or foreign trading venue or over-the-counter) and also affects market makers.

The ban does not apply to transactions in index-related instruments (e.g. FTSEMIB), taking into account the marginal weight of Banca MPS shares in financial indices.

The prohibition has been adopted pursuant to Article 20 of the EU Regulation on short selling, considering the negative price change recorded by the share in the last days and taking into account the positive opinion issued by ESMA on 6 July 2016.

The text of the Resolution is available on the CONSOB website: http://www.consob.it/mainen/index.html, where a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) is also published.