RBA says decision to create an eAUD is ‘some years away’
The Reserve Bank of Australia says a central bank digital currency could increase “efficiency and resilience in some areas of the payments system”, but warns more research is required to deal with legal, regulatory, technical and operational issues to ensure any eAUD operates safely.
“Given the many issues that are yet to be resolved, any decision on a CBDC in Australia is likely to be some years away,” the RBA and Digital Finance Co-operative Research Centre said in a report on 14 pilot projects published on Wednesday.
Major banks and fintechs have been working with the RBA and DFCRC to develop use cases for a digital Australian dollar. istock
Participants in the trials, including three of the big banks, used a real central bank digital currency – known as the eAUD – over the past five months to identify the areas where it might have the biggest pay-off for the economy.
Brad Jones, RBA assistant governor, said on Wednesday that alongside other innovations in digital money, a CBDC “could potentially unlock benefits for the Australian financial system and the wider economy”.
He pledged to continue the bank’s research “into the future of money in Australia”.
The report said the pilots “highlighted a range of areas where a CBDC could enhance the functioning of the payments system”. These include: facilitating “atomic” settlement (when payment and title transfer occur at precisely the same time to eliminate settlement risk); programmable payments; creating new markets for “tokenised”, or digitised assets; and increased transparency and resilience.
However, the RBA is not yet convinced that a CBDC is a vital ingredient in creating these improvements, given alternative forms of digital money that are emerging, including
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