Long-Term Stock Exchange launches in US

A Long-Term Stock Exchange (LTSE) has started trading in the US today, in a bid to offer companies and investors with a longer-term focus an alternative to traditional securities exchanges. 

LTSE, who last year hired Jean Rogers, former head of the Sustainable Accounting Standards Board as its Chief Resilience Officer, has been in the pipeline since 2015. It was approved by the Securities and Exchanges Commission in 2019, and has five rules for companies wishing to list:

     1.  Consider a broader group of stakeholders than just investors. This should include local communities, the environment and employees, and should ensure diversity and inclusion.

     2.  Measure success in years and decades, rather than quarters

     3.  Align the compensation of executives and directors with long-term performance

     4.  Engage directors in long-term strategy, and grant them explicit oversight of such strategy, and

     5.  Engage long-term shareholders.

The LTSE has already secured backing from investors including Founders Fund, Collaborative Fund, Andreessen Horowitz, Obvious Ventures, Uprising, and Initialized. 

Founder and CEO Eric Ries said: “Modern companies want to innovate consistently, minimise pressure to hit short-term targets, join with long-term investors, and run their businesses with the stewardship that stakeholders and society demand. The LTSE offers companies a new way to be public that supports the building of sustainable businesses, tightening ties with investors who share a long-term horizon, and a stakeholder approach.”