Australia’s central bank pairs with industry on digital A$ projects

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia’s central bank is launching 14 pilot projects with the financial industry to develop real world applications for a digital Australian dollar, with the focus on business use rather than a new public means of exchange.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) said proposed uses for a central bank digital currency (CBDC) included offline payments, corporate bond and FX settlement, tokenised bills and even livestock auctions.

Partners include Australia and New Zealand Banking Corp, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Mastercard, along with a range of fin tech firms.

“The project involves selected industry participants demonstrating potential use cases for a CBDC using a limited-scale pilot CBDC that is a real digital claim on the Reserve Bank,” the RBA said in a statement.

A report on the progress of the live pilots is expected around the middle of the year.

(Reporting by Wayne Cole; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)