The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Digital Finance Cooperation Research Center (DFCRC) today released a report on the results of a joint industry research project investigating potential use cases for central bank digital currencies (CBDC) in Australia. Announced.
This project involved the RBA issuing a limited-scale “pilot” CBDC that would be a substantial legal claim. The pilot CBDC was used by selected industry participants to demonstrate how CBDC can be used to deliver innovative payment and settlement services to Australian homes and businesses. The different use cases considered in this project have highlighted different areas where CBDCs can enhance the functionality of payment systems. At the same time, the project raised a number of legal, regulatory, technical and operational issues related to CBDCs that should be further explored in future research.
RBA Assistant Governor for Financial Systems Brad Jones said: “This project demonstrates how CBDC, alongside other innovations in digital money, could potentially benefit Australia’s financial system and the economy as a whole. It gave us valuable insight into what we can do.” He also highlighted the benefits of close collaboration between industry and policy makers in exploring opportunities and challenges related to digital money innovation. The key findings from this project will help shape the next phase of the RBA’s research program on the future of money in Australia. This includes continuing to work on cross-border payments, as well as developing a better understanding of the role that tokenized asset markets and programmable payments play in the Australian economy. “
DFCRC CEO Dr Andreas Furche said: “This report underscores that innovation in finance is a continuous journey.” The strong industry involvement in this project speaks to the importance of collaboration between the central bank as the ultimate issuer of the national currency and industry experts driving its potential use cases. . As we move forward, our research on CBDC may target use cases where CBDC has the greatest potential to provide an infrastructure layer for further innovation in financial products and services. . “
The RBA and DFCRC would like to thank the many industry participants who have contributed so much time and effort to this project.
See below for project details. CBDC pilot project in Australia.