Some of the world’s largest banks are about to meet for talks, aiming to cash in on an issue that has so far left much of Wall Street in stitches: nature and biodiversity.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Standard Chartered are among the lenders sending representatives for the first time to the United Nations COP16 biodiversity summit, which starts next week in the Colombian city of Cali. Other banks planning to send staff include Citigroup, Bank of America, HSBC Holdings and Deutsche Bank.
The sudden interest in a theme long considered too obscure and niche for Wall Street comes as banks and asset managers increasingly see biodiversity as a new breeding ground for financial engineering. Meanwhile, the UN has warned that if private financing is not interested, there will not be nearly enough money to combat the ongoing mass extinction of species and the degradation of the natural world.
