Australian CBDC Can’t Launch In The Next Few Years, Some Problems In Piloting

Key Points:

• The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has said Australia will wait to decide on a central bank digital currency (CBDC).
• As many issues still need to be solved, any decision on CBDCs in Australia will likely be several years away.
• The Central Bank of Australia has completed a pilot of a central bank digital currency to explore potential use cases for the digital dollar.

In a report based on findings from the Australian CBDC pilot, the Reserve Bank of Australia said it would wait to decide on CBDCs for the next few years.

Australia’s central bank has completed a digital currency pilot that explores potential use cases for the digital dollar in four key areas, including enabling complex payments and asset encryption.

The report details that CBDCs can support financial innovation in debt securities markets, drive innovation in emerging private digital currency sectors, and enhance resilience and inclusion in the broader digital economy.

However, a few more years are still needed to research and make decisions about using CBDC as the pilot process of about one year has shown several unresolved issues.

Overall, the report says that while introducing CBDCs could increase efficiency and resilience in some areas of the Australian payments ecosystem, more research is needed to unleash the benefits full potential benefits.

Australia is one of 21 countries that are in the pilot phase of launching a CBDC, according to recent data from the Atlantic Council’s central bank digital currency watchdog. Close allies such as the US and UK are still in exploratory development.

The RBA has launched 14 pilot projects in collaboration with the financial industry to explore real-life applications for Australian CBDCs, including the Dunbar Project, which looks at international settlements using multiple CBDCs. The project is led by the Bank for International Settlements in partnership with the RBA, the Central Bank of Malaysia, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and the Reserve Bank of South Africa.

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