(Photo by Johannes EISELE / AFP) (Photo by JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images)
- A leading banking group called for the SEC to do more to stop speculative short selling in bank stocks.
- The American Bankers Association said social-media speculation about banks was disconnected from their financial reality.
- Short sellers made nearly $400 million in a single day by betting against regional banks.
A leading banking group has called for regulators to step in and halt a wave of short selling in the stocks of US regional lenders, a trend it suggested was driven by social-media speculation.
In a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the American Bankers Association (ABA) urged the market watchdog to do more to stop harmful short bets that were disconnected from the banks' financial realities.