The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been studying the issue of naked short-selling and even instituted new regulations in January 2005 that require the stock exchanges to report stocks that routinely fail-to-deliver.
Unlike in the U.S., where the Glass-Steagall Act severely limits the ability of banks to engage in securities underwriting, European giants such as ABN Amro and Germany's Deutsche Bank can do everything from issue corporate bonds to sit on the board of directors.