Below is a statement released by German financial watchdog BaFin on the bans on naked short-selling of euro zone government bonds and in shares of the country's 10 leading financial institutions, as well as naked transactions of credit default swaps (CDS) linked to euro zone government debt.
"The Federal Financial Supervision Authority (BaFin) on Tuesday temporarily banned naked short-selling of bonds from euro zone states that are traded on a domestic bourse in a regulated market. It also temporarily banned so-called Credit Default Swaps (CDS), insofar as they are at least also linked to the obligations of a euro zone state and they do not serve as a safeguard against default risks (naked CDS).
Furthermore, BaFin banned naked short-selling of shares in the following companies in the financial sector:
- Aareal Bank AG
- Allianz SE
- Commerzbank AG
- Deutsche Bank AG
- Deutsche Boerse AG
- Deutsche Postbank AG
- Generali Deutschland Holding AG
- Hannover Rueckversicherung AG
- MLP AG
- Muenchener Rueckversicherungs-Gesellschaft AG
These bans apply from May 19, 2010 00:00 (May 18 2200 GMT) to March 31 2011, 24:00 (2200 GMT)
Contact people for market participants are reachable at +49 228/4108 4004."