A key focus for the joint research project was RBA issuing a limited-scale “pilot” CBDC to selected industry participants in a ring-fenced environment, so they can demonstrate how the digital currency could be used to provide innovative and value-adding payment and settlement services to Australian households and businesses.
The project, which benefited from strong industry participation, explored various use cases which highlighted a range of areas where a CBDC could enhance the functioning of the payments system. The project also raised a number of legal, regulatory, technical, and operational issues associated with a CBDC that warrant further consideration in future research.
“The project yielded valuable insights into how a CBDC, alongside other innovations in digital money, could potentially unlock benefits for the Australian financial system and the wider economy,” Brad Jones (pictured above), assistant governor of financial system at RBA.
“It also highlighted the benefits of close engagement between industry and policymakers in exploring the opportunities and challenges associated with innovations in digital money.”
Jones said the key findings from the research will help shape the next phase of the central bank’s research program into the future of money in Australia.
“Alongside our ongoing work on cross border payments, this will include deepening our understanding of the role that tokenised asset markets and programmable payments could have in the Australian economy,” he said.
Andreas Furche, CEO of the DFCRC, said the report highlighted that innovation in finance is a
“continuous journey.”
“The strong industry engagement in this project speaks to the importance of collaboration between central banks as ultimate issuers of national currency, and industry experts driving its potential use cases,” Furche said.
Moving forward, the DFCRC chief said Australia’s research on CBDC could look to target use cases where CBDC has the best potential to provide an infrastructure layer for further innovation in financial products and services.
For more information about the project see: Australian CBDC Pilot Project.
Read the Australian CBDC Pilot for Digital Finance Innovation report.
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