The Reserve Bank of Australia is to prioritise the issuance of a wholesale central bank digital currency over a retail CBDC, arguing that a clear business case for the latter has yet to emerge.
The thinking is explained in a central bank and treasury review summarising CBDC research to date. The report also sets out a three-year roadmap for future work on digital money in Australia.
It 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.
The RBA says that 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 says: "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, the central bank plans to launch the public phase of 'Project Acacia', which will explore opportunities to improve the efficiency, transparency and resilience of wholesale markets through tokenisation and new settlement infrastructure.
The focus will be on understanding how new ledger arrangements and concepts like ‘programmability’ and ‘atomic settlement’ in tokenised markets could unlock benefits for the Australian financial system and wider economy.
Says Jones: "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."