The FCA’s new Short Selling Regime: what changed in UK net short position reporting

The FCA introduced a revised UK Short Selling Regime (SSR) on 13 July 2026, changing how net short positions are reported and disclosed to the public.

The main change is the removal of named public disclosures. Under the previous regime, individual investors were publicly identified when their net short position in a company reached 0.5% of issued share capital.

The FCA now publishes a single aggregated net short position for each company. This figure combines all reportable positions of 0.2% or more but does not disclose the identity of the investors that hold the net short positions, the number of positions involved or the size of each individual position.

Regulatory reporting remains mandatory. Position holders must notify the FCA when a net short position reaches 0.2%, and again whenever it crosses another 0.1 percentage-point threshold. The reporting deadline has moved from 15:30 to 23:59 on the following working day.

Public data is now published on a T+2 basis, meaning the aggregated figure normally appears two working days after the relevant position date.

The FCA has also introduced a Reportable Shares List, which identifies the UK shares covered by the regime. The list will be updated regularly and reviewed in full every two years.

For market participants, the new system provides a broader view of reportable short exposure at company level because positions between 0.2% and 0.5% are now included in the published aggregate. However, it removes visibility into which funds or investment firms are responsible for those positions.

Users should also note that the published figure is not equal to total short interest. Positions below the 0.2% reporting threshold are excluded.

For ShortsInsights, this means we will no longer track individual UK net short positions after 13 July 2026. Our dashboard will continue to display the individual positions reported up to that date, representing a snapshot of the market when the previous disclosure regime ended. We will subsequently separate this historical data from the new aggregated figures published under the revised Short Selling Regime.