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Northern Trust goes live with digital platform for tokenised carbon credits
The Northern Trust Carbon Ecosystem is driven by Matrix Zenith , the firm ' s digital assets platform that leverages blockchain technology to manage digital asset lifecycle events .
Northern Trust has officially launched its Carbon Ecosystem to enable the transactions of tokenised carbon credits , with the first live transaction occurring on the blockchain-based platform . The go-live of the platform follows Northern Trust ’ s milestone of completing fully automated transactions on the initial minimum viable product , announced back in September 2023 . Pete Cherecwich , president of asset servicing at Northern Trust , said : “ The Northern Trust Carbon Ecosystem supports the growing interest in the Voluntary Carbon Market by providing a digital lifecycle management capability for voluntary carbon credits .” The fully digital platform allows purchasers to transact tokenised carbon credits directly with project developers and retire these against their carbon footprint . Institutional investors can now connect with carbon credit suppliers who are focused on solutions to reduce greenhouse gases , including carbon dioxide . Cherecwich said : “ The seamless and secure settlement experience is designed to give project developers and institutional buyers confidence in their carbon credit transactions , with Northern Trust as the custodian .” The voluntary carbon credit ecosystem across the industry utilises private blockchain technology , enabling institutional buyers to digitally access tokenised carbon credits directly from project developers . The first official live transactions were carried out by Water Recovery Systems and CUT Carbon Distributed Technologies , selling carbon credits to institutional buyers for retirement . Justin Chapman , global head of digital assets and financial markets , at Northern Trust , said : “ The Northern Trust Carbon Ecosystem is just one example of the current and future planned applications of Northern Trust Matrix Zenith – the latest milestone in our asset servicing innovation journey . It supports key digital asset lifecycle events from asset creation , trading , pricing and custody to reporting . Leveraging blockchain technology , Northern Trust Matrix Zenith integrates with our core traditional asset servicing infrastructure to support digital and traditional assets side-by-side .” Northern Trust , in its role as the designated custodian , acts on instructions to record , transfer and settle digital carbon credits . Cherecwich added : “ Northern Trust Matrix Zenith is an assetand market-agnostic platform that allows us to support our clients ’ digital asset strategies . This gives us flexibility to drive our focused developments in tandem with our broader collaborations with clients and industry stakeholders , helping us explore new opportunities while evolving with the rapidly changing marketplace .”
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