Switzerland's SIX Group AG, which operates the SIX Swiss Exchange AG, launched a data service to help investors who do not want to expose their portfolios to securities connected to marijuana-related businesses.
SIX said it applied relevant data to identify 30,000 securities that are directly or indirectly linked to marijuana-related businesses, or MRBs.
The bourse said MRB-related securities can originate from sectors such as pharmaceutical, recreational, transport and retail. This makes it more difficult for companies to control their exposure to securities that could land them in regulatory trouble. Some countries in Europe consider investing in MRBs to be money laundering, for example.
Rules around cannabis are still up in the air, especially in the U.S. where some states have legalized it, which enables MRBs to look for funding on capital markets, but on the federal level cannabis remains illegal.
Meanwhile, it is also still illegal in most countries around the world, with only a handful looking at legalization favorably.
The bourse said it is important for companies globally to know how much exposure they have to cannabis-linked securities and "which category the securities fall into to meet regulatory requirements."
"As MRB becomes increasingly linked to the capital markets, our clients have been asking us how to best guard against any risk of portfolio exposure," said Oliver Bodmer, SIX's senior product manager.
