The federal government, trying to boost investor confidence in the face of a market crisis, took the dramatic step Friday of temporarily banning a practice of betting against financial stocks.
The move by the Securities and Exchange Commission will temporarily ban what is called short selling of nearly 800 financial stocks.
The 799 companies covered by the ban are an A-to-Z of the nation's financial institutions, including the powerhouse investment banks such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (nyse: GS - news - people ) and Morgan Stanley (nyse: MS - news - people ) and commercial banks running the gamut from Bank of America Corp. (nyse: BAC - news - people ) to Cape Fear Bank Corp. (nasdaq: CAPE - news - people )SLM Corp. (nyse: SLM - news - people ), which is known as Sallie Mae and is the biggest U.S. student lender is on the list, as are Charles Schwab Corp. (nasdaq: SCHW - news - people ), Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (nyse: BRK - news - people ) and Principal Financial Group (nyse: PFG - news - people ) Inc.
Washington Mutual Inc. (nyse: WM - news - people ), the nation's largest thrift, which has lost billions from subprime mortgage exposure and seen its shares plunge in recent weeks, also is on the SEC list.
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