The World Bank and IMF are in crisis. It's time to push a radical new vision | David Adler and Yanis Varoufakis

The exit of Jim Yong Kim offers a chance to put the Bretton Woods institutions in the service of the many, not the few

The president of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, will step down on 1 February - three and a half years before the end of his term - in search of greener pastures. His readiness to resign from the leadership of one the two most powerful international financial institutions is a worrying omen. But it is also an important wake-up call.

The World Bank and the IMF are the last remaining columns of the Bretton Woods edifice under which capitalism experienced its golden age in the 1950s and 1960s. While that system, and the fixed exchange rate regime it relied upon, bit the dust in 1971, the two institutions continued to support global finance along purely Atlanticist lines: with Europe's establishment choosing the IMF's managing director and the United States selecting the head of the World Bank.

Related: 'Ridiculous': report Ivanka Trump could lead World Bank meets scorn

If we do not act quickly - demanding a radical change of direction - the World Bank will likely fade into irrelevance

Jim Yong Kim's departure makes one thing clear: the World Bank is on the brink

David Adler is a writer and a member of DiEM25's Coordinating Collective. Yanis Varoufakis is the co-founder of DiEM25. He is also the former finance minister of Greece