Hong Kong's chief regulator has said that calls to criminalise short selling in the US and UK is a "knee-jerk reaction" and is confident that his refusal to ban the practice will not lead to hedge fund speculators targeting failing companies.
In an exclusive interview, Martin Wheatley, the chief executive officer of Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) said that if a ban on naked short selling had been introduced in the US and UK earlier, as it was in Hong Kong, the general ban now rapidly being imposed would not be necessary.
"The fact that we banned naked short selling ten years ago has meant that Hong Kong has a system that appears, so far at least, to be working well," he said.
Commenting on the UK and US's approach, Wheatley said: "We're seeing extraordinary markets so these are unusual situations. But the move to blanket ban short-selling is a bit of a knee-jerk reaction."
Following Australia and Taiwan's decision to also ban short selling this week, there is a fear among some companies in Asia that Hong Kong could become a target for hedge funds looking to speculate on companies' failure.
"It's possible that they could become a target and so it's something that we watch very carefully," said Wheatley, adding that if Hong Kong does become a target and suffers extreme price moves, the SFC will examine the situation.
"You can never have absolutes. But the truth is that naked short selling is illegal in Hong Kong. So part of the structure that was an abuse in the US and Australian market isn't a problem here."
Wheatley said that the Commission is monitoring stocks every day and is prepared to put a blanket ban on short selling immediately.
"If people are unable to short in the UK and so use Hong Kong as the proxy, then we would look very closely. But we haven't seen evidence of that yet."