how do you know American companies are using their shares for...

how do you know American companies are using their shares for shorting? It might be American banks processing the orders and holding the stock-borrow/hypothecate paperwork but that doesn’t mean they have used their own shares to do it, or even decided to short the stock.

JP Morgan gets blamed a lot on here as a shorter but they will be acting on behalf of a client. So there is an entity using JP Morgan or UBS etc to facilitate a short. Given that 10% is now in short positions it begs the question as to who exactly has leant out that many shares? Maybe it’s a very long term holder who wants to continue an accumulation of shares and is quite aware of what the future prospects are for PLS? That scenario makes a lot more sense.. maintain downward pressure on something that you know is likely to rise which allows an expansion of your holding at lower prices and pick up an income from lending out your shares.

The American banks (and any investment bank) on the register are usually custodial holders of the stock as opposed to the likely beneficial holder. My shares at Morgan Stanley will appear as a MS holding but that’s because of a nominee holding not because MS now owns my shares, they are the custodial holder and I am the beneficial holder. My WES and WOW shares at MS have stock-borrow agreements on them but not my PLS. A bank can’t just short your holding or lend them out without explanation etc. at least not in my experience, maybe some agreements allow this but 10% seems unlikely that they are just Willy nilly lending out clients stock.