The bill protects mainstream investors and reduces potential systemic market risks by keeping natural-asset-linked securities off national exchanges, but it does so at the cost of reducing capital, liquidity, transparency, and innovation for conservation finance and rural landowners.
Investors (including taxpayers) will be protected from direct exposure to a new, potentially risky asset class because natural-asset-company securities would be barred from national exchanges, reducing retail and institutional exposure.
Financial institutions and broader market participants will face lower systemic risk because removing illiquid or hard-to-value natural-asset-linked securities from major exchanges reduces the chance of market-disrupting shocks.
Rural communities, conservation organizations, and landowners will have reduced access to capital because companies that finance land conservation via public markets would be unable to list on national exchanges, lowering funding for conservation and restoration projects.
Investors and financial institutions will face reduced liquidity and potentially depressed valuations for natural-asset companies because their securities cannot be bought or sold on national exchanges, harming returns and exit options.
Investors will face weaker protections because issuers may be pushed to unregulated or offshore markets, reducing transparency and regulatory oversight for these securities.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Prohibits national securities exchanges from effecting transactions in securities issued by companies that hold rights to ecological performance of a defined land area and whose primary purpose is managing those natural assets.
Introduced February 13, 2025 by Mark E. Green · Last progress February 13, 2025
Prohibits national securities exchanges from effecting transactions in securities issued by companies that hold or control rights to the ecological performance of a defined land area and whose primary purpose is to manage or grow those natural assets or carry out activities that do not materially harm and that replenish natural resources. Also adds a short title for the Act. The measure defines what counts as a "natural asset company," includes affiliated entities under common control, and applies this prohibition to exchanges operating under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.