Sponsors (23)
The bill protects mainstream investors and may reduce commercialization pressure on conserved lands by banning certain natural‑asset securities from national exchanges, but it also curtails a public financing route for land/restoration projects and risks pushing issuance into less transparent venues while complicating corporate finance for affiliated firms.
Mainstream investors and taxpayers will have reduced exposure to a new, potentially risky class of natural‑asset securities because trading of those instruments on national exchanges is banned, lowering potential retail/systemic investor risk.
Rural communities and conserved lands could face less commercial pressure because keeping these financing vehicles out of mainstream capital markets may reduce incentives to monetize or otherwise pressure land managed for conservation.
Small businesses and project developers that rely on issuing natural‑asset securities will have reduced access to public equity markets, making capital harder or costlier to obtain and potentially slowing or cancelling land restoration and conservation projects.
Investors lose a regulated, transparent, and liquid trading venue for these securities, which may push issuance into less transparent or less liquid markets and increase investor risk and information asymmetry.
Affiliated firms that control or are controlled by natural‑asset companies may be swept into the ban, complicating corporate finance structures, creating regulatory uncertainty, and raising compliance or restructuring costs across broader corporate groups.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Prohibits national securities exchanges from effecting transactions in securities issued by entities that hold and manage the ecological performance or ecosystem services of defined land areas.
Official title: To amend the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to prohibit exchanges from effecting transactions in securities issued by natural asset companies, and for other purposes.
Introduced February 13, 2025 by Mark E. Green · Last progress February 13, 2025
Makes it illegal for national securities exchanges to list or effect transactions in securities issued by "natural asset companies." A "natural asset company" is defined as an entity that holds rights to the ecological performance or ecosystem services of a defined land area and whose primary purpose is to manage, conserve, restore, or sustain those natural assets. The change amends the Exchange Act to bar national exchanges from trading an entire category of issuers, creating an enforceable prohibition against exchanges that list or effect transactions in those securities.