The Reserve Bank has partnered with the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre (DFCRC) to develop a limited-scale CBDC pilot that will operate in a ring-fenced environment to explore use cases for a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in Australia.
The research project, which is expected to take about a year to complete, will focus on innovative use cases and business models that could be supported by the issuance of a CBDC. The project will also look into some of the technological, legal, and regulatory considerations associated with a CBDC.
Interested industry participants will be invited to develop specific use cases that demonstrate how a CBDC could be used to provide innovative and value-added payment and settlement services to households and businesses. A range of different use cases will then be selected to take part in the pilot, based on their potential to provide insights into the possible benefits of a CBDC.
In the next few months, a paper will be published that will explain the objectives and approach of the project in more detail and how industry participants will be able to engage.
The Australian Treasury is participating as a member of the steering committee for the project, as part of its joint work with the Reserve Bank on exploring the viability of a CBDC in Australia.
“This project is an important next step in our research on CBDC,” said Michele Bullock, deputy governor of the Reserve Bank. “We are looking forward to engaging with a wide range of industry participants to better understand the potential benefits a CBDC could bring to Australia.”
“CBDC is no longer a question of technological feasibility,” said Andreas Furche, CEO of DFCRC. “The key research questions now are what economic benefits a CBDC could enable, and how it could be designed to maximise those benefits.”
RBA will publish a report on the findings from the project, including an assessment of the various use cases developed.
