The Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) issued new guidance for calculating and reporting short positions on Friday, in anticipation of the adoption of a new reporting process in 2018.

The new process will see IIROC become the only organization receiving short position reports. Firms will not have to report this data to the various exchanges.

“We expect that the filing of one consolidated report with IIROC will be more efficient [for the industry],” IIROC says in a notice published on Friday. “We expect the most significant impact on participants will be more efficiency. Participants will file a single report with IIROC instead of separate reports with each listing exchange.”

The guidance sets out the requirements for reporting to IIROC under the new system, which will take effect when a new reporting facility is launched (expected to be in the fall of 2018).

IIROC intends to publish a consolidated short position report on its website on the 15th of each month, the notice says. The consolidated report will set out aggregate short positions on all listed and quoted securities, and the net change in short positions from the previous reporting date for each security.