The use of financial instruments is a relatively new concept for biodiversity offsets but is regularly applied in other comparable environmental policy problems. In the mining sector, for example, financial security is generally required to provide a guaranteed level of funding for site rehabilitation at the conclusion of a firm’s operations, even if the company collapses (Burgin, 2008). An important consideration when using financial mechanisms to manage delivery risk is that they create time lags between when a regulator becomes aware that an offset has failed and the time of the biodiversity loss at the development site. Where issues of species persistence are present, using financial risk mitigation may need to be tempered as the time lags involved can increase the risk of unintended, irreversible biodiversity outcomes (e.g. species extinction) (Evans et al.,