(10 May 2022 – Global) Carbonplace, the bank-backed DLT-based carbon credit settlement platform, has successfully carried out a pilot transfer with payments giant Visa.
The transaction involved Visa purchasing Verra-certified credits from Sustainable Carbon, a carbon credit project developer in a key step ahead of a planned launch towards the end of 2022 for what is being dubbed the “Swift for the carbon markets”.
The transfers was facilitated by two of Carbonplace's founding banks, National Australia Bank (NAB) on behalf of Visa and Itaú Unibanco on behalf of Sustainable Carbon.
The participating banks – which include BNP Paribas, CIBC, NatWest, Standard Chartered, and UBS – argue that they can collaboratively leverage their existing infrastructure, including KYC and AML procedures, to address some of the challenges that have held back the development of the voluntary carbon market.
“Carbonplace is creating new opportunities to help our customers as they take action to reduce their emissions and achieve their own targets,” said NAB corporate and institutional banking group executive David Gall. “This successful pilot transaction with Visa is a significant step towards being able to help more of our customers tackle existing barriers and make carbon credits more accessible to everyone.”