BaFin Head: Short Selling Ban Not Sign Of Weakness Of Banks

BERLIN (MNI) – The head of Germany’s financial watchdog BaFin,
Jochen Sanio, said Wednesday that the decision to ban uncovered short
selling on some assets is not a sign of weakness of the German banking
system.

“The German banking system is solvent,” Sanio said in a hearing in
Germany’s lower house of parliament, the Bundestag. “The measures are
meant solely to prevent trading abuses.”

Sanio claimed that those who have been targeted by the short
selling ban had been trying on Tuesday to create the wrong impression
that the ban was a sign of weakness of the German banking system. “This
has cost the euro [exchange rate] one or two cents,” he said.

–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com

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