The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and Treasury today released a report summarising research to date on
central bank digital currency (CBDC) and how this has informed the RBA and Treasurys current
assessment of CBDC issues in Australia. The report also sets out a three-year roadmap for future work on
digital money in Australia.
The report concludes that a clear public interest case to issue a retail CBDC has yet to emerge in
Australia. This assessment is partly informed by the observation that Australians are generally well
served by the capabilities and resilience of the current retail payments system. In jurisdictions that
have issued a retail CBDC or indicated that it is quite possible in coming years, the main motivations
have less resonance in Australia. Nonetheless, the RBA and Treasury remain open to the possibility that
this assessment could change over time as potential benefits and costs are better understood, both
internationally and in a domestic context.
The report also highlights the role that a wholesale CBDC, alongside other forms of digital money and
infrastructure upgrades, could play in enhancing the functioning of wholesale markets in Australia.
Brad Jones, Assistant Governor (Financial System) at the RBA said, the RBA is
making a strategic commitment to prioritise its work agenda on wholesale digital money
and infrastructure – including wholesale CBDC. At the present time, we assess the
potential benefits as more promising, and the challenges less problematic, for wholesale
CBDC compared to a retail CBDC. Next month, we will launch the public phase of Project
Acacia, which will explore opportunities to uplift the efficiency, transparency and
resilience of wholesale markets through tokenisation and new settlement infrastructure.
This initiative will form part of a larger effort to step up our engagement with
industry and other stakeholders on the question of how our monetary arrangements could
better support the Australian economy in the digital age.
