GREECE: HCMC Q and A on emergency short selling ban extension

Tuesday July 7 2015

The Hellinic Capital Market Commission (HCMC) has answered the following questions on the extension of the emergency measures in the Greek capital market.

The questions and a summary of the answers are:

What are the emergency measures taken by the HCMC?
Following the Legislative Act of 28 June 2015, on the establishment of a short-term bank holiday and the Decision of the Minister of Finance of 6 July 2015 by which the above short term bank holiday and all its accompanying measures were extended until the 8th July (included), the HCMC announces the following measures:
The extension of the suspension of trading;
The extension of the suspension of redemption of units in mutual funds;
The extension of the suspension of clearing and settlement;
The suspension of cash settlement of securities;
The extension of the temporary prohibition.

Which are the specific securities affected by the measures?
There is an attached list of ISIN numbers and bonds contained in the link.

For how long will these measures apply?
The extension of the emergency measures of points (i) to (ii) above will apply from 7 July 2015 until 8 July 2015 (included). The temporary prohibition of transactions of point (iv) (net short positions) will be in force as of 00:00:01 hours (CET) on 7 July 2015 until 24:00:00 on 13 July 2015. For both sets of measures there is the possibility of shortening or extending the above period by decision of the HCMC’s Board of Directors.

What about other platforms connected to the ATHEX trading and clearing?
ATHEXClear continues to clear the transactions executed on SIBEX Romania. The participation of Greek trading members in the common platform with CSE of Cyprus has ceased due to the capital control restrictions introduced.

Does the net short position ban extend to all financial instruments?
The ban covers all transactions in the financial instruments listed in Part I of Annex 1 of Commission Regulation (EU) No 918/2012 of 5 July 2012 contributing to the net short position. In particular, transactions in index-related instruments and ETFs are included to the extent that the shares admitted to trading on the Athens Exchange and the Multilateral Trading Facility of ‘EN.A’ (Alternative Market of the Athens Exchange) of which the relevant Competent Authority is the HCMC represent more than 5% of the total value of these instruments.

Click on the above link for further details