The heads of key financial agencies and the prosecution have discussed ways to strengthen crackdowns on and punishment for illegal activities involving the short selling of listed stocks.

The heads of the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service as well as senior officials from the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office and Korea Exchange held a joint meeting on the topic on Thursday.

The meeting was held after President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday ordered financial authorities and the prosecution to devise steps to root out such illicit activities.

The meeting’s participants agreed that investors are becoming increasingly worried about the exploitation of short selling in illicit transactions and the continuance of the practice without proper detection or penalization.

To stamp out such illegal activities, the participants agreed to swiftly improve the short selling system while also seeking to strengthen penalties for such activities.

Under short selling schemes, investors rent stocks with prices that are expected to fall and sell them, later buying them back after the prices drop and returning them to their original owner while profiting on the difference.