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.
About Northern Trust
Northern Trust Corporation (Nasdaq: NTRS) is a leading provider of wealth management, asset servicing, asset management and banking to corporations, institutions, affluent families and individuals. Founded in Chicago in 1889, Northern Trust has a global presence with offices in 24 U.S. states and Washington, D.C., and across 22 locations in Canada, Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region. As of March 31, 2025, Northern Trust had assets under custody/administration of US$16.9 trillion, and assets under management of US$1.6 trillion. For more than 135 years, Northern Trust has earned distinction as an industry leader for exceptional service, financial expertise, integrity and innovation. Visit us on northerntrust.com. Follow us on Instagram @northerntrustcompany or Northern Trust on LinkedIn.
Northern Trust Corporation, Head Office: 50 South La Salle Street, Chicago, Illinois 60603 U.S.A., incorporated with limited liability in the U.S. Global legal and regulatory information can be found at https://www.northerntrust.com/terms-and-conditions.
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