The Northern Trust Carbon Ecosystem™ will provide lifecycle management for digital carbon credits certified under the Natural Forest Standard
Northern Trust (Nasdaq: NTRS) announced today that it has entered into a service agreement with UK-based Ecosystem Certification Organisation (ECO) to provide recordation and settlement services for digital carbon credit units issued to project developers under the Natural Forest Standard (NFS), which is administered and governed by ECO.
Under the agreement, Northern Trust will record the ‘Natural Capital Credits’ generated by NFS-certified projects and act on instructions from each project developer to transfer and settle digital carbon credit transactions and provide designated custodial services.
The NFS has been developed for natural forestry projects within the voluntary carbon market. NFS provides a mechanism for crediting the carbon, biodiversity, and socio-economic benefits achieved by preventing deforestation and degradation of large-scale natural forest projects. ECO supports project developers utilizing the NFS methodology and works with projects from the initial implementation to credit issuance and helps ensure the methodology and governance process are transparent and credible, which is a key component of the standard’s integrity.
ECO has chosen to outsource recordation and settlement services to strengthen independence, enhance efficiency, and maintain a clear separation between governance and registry operations. This decision reflects ECO’s commitment to transparency, integrity, and the delivery of a strong and effective registry service.
Victoria Kelly, Director at Ecosystem Certification Organisation, said: “Appointing The Northern Trust Carbon Ecosystem to administer the Natural Capital Credits will provide full lifecycle management of all digital carbon credits today and in the future, ensuring transparency and traceability for all Natural Capital Credits issued to projects verified under the Natural Forest Standard.”
Jonathan Bowie, Director at Ecosystem Certification Organisation added: “By working with Northern Trust, we are able to focus further attention on our core business offering of supporting operational activities in relation to the administration of the main functions of the Standard.”
Justin Chapman, Group Head of Strategic Partnerships, Digital Assets and Financial Markets, at Northern Trust, said: “We are pleased to provide recordation services to ECO. Working with standards bodies who are looking to separate responsibilities supports further maturity of the Voluntary Carbon Market.”
Northern Trust announced the formal launch of The Northern Trust Carbon Ecosystem in September 2024 with the first live transactions. The ecosystem is powered by Northern Trust’s digital assets platform, Northern Trust Matrix Zenith™ which is the latest milestone in Northern Trust’s asset servicing innovation journey. Northern Trust Matrix Zenith supports key digital asset lifecycle events from asset creation, trading, pricing and custody to reporting.
The Northern Trust Carbon Ecosystem is offered through The Northern Trust Company, Chicago.
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