The Dutch Finance Minister is banning "naked" short selling of financial stocks for the next three months to increase the stability of financial markets.
The ban will go into effect Monday, Finance Minister Wouter Bos told national broadcaster NOS.
A number of countries have clamped down on the practice of selling borrowed shares in hopes of buying them back cheaper and pocketing the difference. Naked short selling entails selling a stock short without first borrowing the shares, as is done in a conventional short sale.
Last week, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission banned all short selling in the shares of 799 financial companies until Oct. 2.
Britain and Germany are among other countries that have taken similar measures.
You're in Easy Mode. If you prefer, you can use XHTML Mode instead. |