Northern Trust announced a collaboration with Swift to explore how tokenized assets such as carbon credits can be transacted using a commercial bank account in Australia. The initiative, which aims to demonstrate how digital asset innovation can connect seamlessly with core components of the financial system, is part of Project Acacia, a research project led by the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre (DFCRC).

The initiative will be supported by The Northern Trust Carbon Ecosystem™, a fully digital platform for the end-to-end lifecycle management of digital carbon credits which utilizes private ledger digital blockchain technology. With Northern Trust recording, transferring and settling digital carbon credits as instructed in its role as designated custodian, the project will simulate a delivery-versus-payment (DvP) settlement between a tokenized, digital carbon credit and fiat currency, using Swift’s infrastructure to coordinate between the asset and payment layers.

The aim is to illustrate how traditional commercial banking infrastructure can support simultaneous settlement of tokenized assets. This marks a key step forward in demonstrating interoperability between tokenized ecosystems and traditional financial infrastructure. Establishing such connectivity is critical for digital assets to become an integral part of the global capital markets.

Justin Chapman, Group Head of Strategic Partnerships, Digital Assets and Financial Markets at Northern Trust, said: “The evolution of tokenized markets hinges on our ability to link emerging asset types with traditional infrastructure. By collaborating on Project Acacia, Northern Trust is helping to prove that delivery-versus-payment of tokenized assets is not a future ideal but a present-day reality. Through The Northern Trust Carbon Ecosystem and engagement with initiatives like this, we aim to shape the market infrastructure that will underpin sustainable finance and institutional digital asset adoption.”

Northern Trust’s involvement in Project Acacia reflects its continued commitment to collaborative innovation in digital finance. The project follows its participation in other forward-looking initiatives, including Project Guardian in Singapore, where Northern Trust is working with institutional partners to pilot a green bond report tokenization solution. More recently, Northern Trust also joined Project Ensemble in Hong Kong to test cross border trading of carbon credits.

Angelo Calvitto, Head of Asia-Pacific at Northern Trust: “This collaboration demonstrates our regional leadership in bringing digital innovation to market. Australia is playing an important role in advancing real-world research, and we’re proud to contribute our expertise to a project that bridges tokenized asset platforms with banking systems in a regulated environment. Our experience across carbon markets, tokenization and financial services puts us in a strong position to help chart the next phase of market evolution.”

The Northern Trust Carbon Ecosystem™, launched in 2024, supports the growing interest in the Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) by providing an end-to-end digital lifecycle management capability for digital voluntary carbon credits. Utilizing custom designed, private ledger digital blockchain technology, it provides a digital platform for project developers and buyers to explore, transact and retire voluntary carbon credits.

Kevin Wong, Chief Executive APAC, Swift: “The ability to integrate tokenized assets with existing financial infrastructure is critical to unlocking their full potential. This initiative demonstrates how Swift’s infrastructure can support the adoption of digital assets such as carbon credits in a delivery-versus-payment model. By enabling interoperability between existing banking infrastructures and emerging digital ecosystems, we’re helping to lay the groundwork for scalable, secure, and sustainable adoption of tokenized finance across the globe.”

Project Acacia is a research project being led by the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre to explore how different forms of digital money and associated infrastructure could support the development of wholesale tokenized asset markets in Australia.

The Northern Trust Carbon Ecosystem is offered through The Northern Trust Company, Chicago.

Source: Northern Trust