The chairman of the European Securities and Markets Authority said while there was no plan to extend a ban on short-selling financial stocks to other countries, such a move could not be ruled out. ESMA Chairman Steven Maijoor told Reuters TV the curbs, brought in to rein in wild fluctuations in European stock values amid a flurry of rumours, would be in place for a while and would not be permanent.
"There are no concrete plans at this stage for other countries, but we cannot rule out that might change in the coming days and weeks and months," he said. Belgium, France, Italy, and Spain banned short-selling of financial stocks on Friday after two days of drastic moves targeting European financial shares, with French bank Societe Generale undergoing the most brutal swings.
Maijoor said he was confident the ban would help bring confidence back to markets frazzled by Europe's longstanding debt crisis and the whirling rumours of ill-health in the French banking sector. But market players assailed the ban as both too narrow - Austria, Britain, the Netherlands and Sweden have said they see no need for a ban - and too easy to circumvent by speculating on derivatives and other instruments. Responding to that criticism, Maijoor invoked ESMA's limited mandate over national markets.