On 2 December 2022, the FCA updated their webpage on the notification and disclosure of net short positions.

The webpage now includes a new section providing an update on the FCA’s review of the UK list of exempted shares. The FCA published an initial UK list of exempted shares on 31 December 2020. This list contains shares admitted to trading on a UK trading venue and on third country venues whose principal venue for trading is outside the UK. The existing list contains 2 tabs:

• FCA list of exempted shares as determined under Article 16(2), first sub-paragraph of the UK Short Selling Regulation (UK SSR).
• ESMA list of exempted shares as of 31 December 2020 as required under Article 16(2), second sub-paragraph of the UK SSR. 

An updated list will be published on 30 December 2022. The main changes will be:

• The European Securities and Markets Authority’s list of exempted shares tab will be deleted and should no longer be used.
• The FCA’s list will be renamed as ‘UK List of exempted shares’ and updated with the results of the FCA’s liquidity assessment. This will have three 3 columns to identify ‘Share ISIN’, ‘Issuer name’ and ‘Date added’.
• The current file structure will remain. It will be an Excel file with 2 tabs: the updated list and instructions.