(24 October 2018 – Australia) The Reserve Bank of Australia has said while it’s open to considering wholesale application for a digital Australian dollar, it hasn’t yet been convinced of the need to create one, and the RBA does not want one for domestic use.
Following last year’s cryptocurrency bubble, the potential for the Australian central bank to issue digital dollars to allow money to move through distributed ledgers if fading.
“The system works well and you don’t actually need access to direct settlement to do lots and lots of business,” RBA assistant governor Michelle Bullock told the audience at Sibos this week.
The RBA, along with other central banks around the world, has been pressured by fintechs to open up its payment infrastructure by making the real-time gross settlement system more accessible.
“I’m interested to consider what frictions these technologies are designed to address [but] in many cases I just don’t see what the point is,” Ms Bullock said.
“We do have more of an open mind on the issue of wholesale and whether or not central bank digital currencies should play a role in assisting with perhaps supply chains, cross border … But it remains for industry to demonstrate to us really why what we have got available in terms of payments systems, including those still coming on board, can’t actually deliver that already.
“I am not convinced that it has a use,” Ms Bullock added.