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.
Australia has been exploring the CBDC use cases for several years. The central bank said it hadn't been able to identify a clear public benefit for a retail CBDC because citizens are well served by the current retail payments system.
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.
Next month, the central bank will launch the public phase of Project Acacia, which will explore opportunities to improve wholesale markets using central bank money through tokenization and new settlement infrastructure.
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