Rewiring Global Finance: Natural Capital, Central Banks & the Beyond Bretton Woods Initiative

In this episode of Investing in Regeneration, Mónica Altamirano de Jong sits down with Frank Van Gansbeke — co-founder of the Beyond Bretton Woods (BBW) Initiative, Executive Scholar in Residence at Middlebury College, and former senior executive with over 30 years of experience in corporate finance and capital markets — to explore one of the most fundamental questions in regenerative investing: why does our global financial system still make it more profitable to destroy nature than to restore it, and what would it take to change that? Shaped by deep experience in global banking, the 2008 financial crisis, the defence of the euro in 2012, and a decade of teaching finance at Middlebury College, Frank brings a rare combination of insider knowledge and systemic critique. Through the Beyond Bretton Woods Initiative — a global think tank co-founded at COP26 with James Vaccaro and currently co-writing a book with Professor Jon Isham — Frank and a network of 50 global thinkers are articulating an array of recommendations to redesign the international financial architecture for the 21st century. Together, they explore the three fault lines of our current financial system — an outdated value paradigm, a global power imbalance, and systemic risk agnosticism — and what it would mean to fix them. From natural capital as central bank-eligible collateral and indigenous communities as custodians of global commons, to the role of price signals, the Tropical Forever Forest Facility, and the limits of GDP as a metric of wealth, this conversation maps the architecture of a financial system that places people, nature, and long-term wellbeing at its centre. ▶️Rewiring Global Finance: Natural Capital, Central Banks & the Beyond Bretton Woods Initiative 00:00:00  The Amazon Trade-Off: Why It Still Pays More to Fell a Tree Than to Save It 00:01:32  Introducing Frank Van Gansbeke & the Beyond Bretton Woods Initiative 00:04:27  80 Years On: The Three Fault Lines of Our International Financial Architecture 00:09:11  Theory of Change: Bottom-Up Recommendations & Top-Down Engagement 00:13:51  Frank’s Journey: From Global Banking to Regenerative Finance 00:19:09  Teaching Finance in a Polycrisis: Hope, Diagnosis & the Next Generation 00:23:28  How the Outdated Value Paradigm Shapes Investment Origination 00:29:21  Indigenous Communities as Natural Capital Custodians 00:32:20  Valuing Natural Capital: From Satellite Mapping to Central Bank Collateral 00:42:44  Building Blocks & What Still Needs to Be Developed 00:49:17  The Tropical Forever Forest Facility & In Right Relationship 00:52:33  Beyond GDP: Holistic Wealth, Shorter Work Weeks & Purpose-Driven Economies 00:59:08  Solidarity, the Loss & Damage Fund & the Values We’ve Lost 01:00:39  Magic Wand: Using Central Bank Price Signals to Redirect Capital Notable Quote: “We have a system that favors harm and pollution at a very low cost, and healing or regeneration at a very high cost. We need a pricing equation that makes an investor at least indifferent between letting a tree stand tall — and felling it.” — Frank Van Gansbeke Connect with Guest: 📱 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frank-van-gansbeke-48199918/ 💻 Website: https://www.beyondbrettonwoods.org/ Connect with Mónica: 📱 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/altamiranomonicaa/