Global banks want to monetize biodiversity

Some of the world’s biggest banks are about to gather for talks, with the goal of monetizing a theme that until now has left much of Wall Street drawing blanks: nature and biodiversity.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Standard Chartered are among 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 that plan to send staff include Citigroup, Bank of America, HSBC Holdings and Deutsche Bank.

The sudden interest in a theme that’s long been deemed too obscure and niche for Wall Street comes as banks and asset managers increasingly look to biodiversity as a new incubator for financial engineering. Meanwhile, the U.N. has warned that without private finance taking an interest, there won’t be nearly enough money to fight the ongoing mass extinction of species and degradation of the natural world.