ANZ Ratchets Up A$DC Stablecoin Ambitions
(1 June 2022 – Australia) ANZ is seeking to connect more corporate customers to “A$DC”, the group’s nascent stablecoin solution.
A$DC is fully collateralised with Australian dollars and currently under the microscope by multiple regulators. The stablecoin’s initial use case allowing large corporate clients to invest in crypto assets is being expanded to enable clients to buy a broad range of digital assets with Australian dollars (AUD). The A$DC is being supported by the federal government to collect excise taxes while ANZ endeavours to apply the technology to facilitate carbon credit trading and in future allow customers to acquire non-fungible tokens (NFTs) with AUD.
Since executing the group’s inaugural stablecoin transaction in Q1 2022 to save Smorgon Steel fees and reduce FX risk as it traded crypto markets, regulators have closely investigated the A$DC structure including asset backing and custody arrangements.
“When you think about stablecoins that are, issued by a commercial bank in Australia, it really is just a different form factor of money. Are we going to extend the A$DC? Yes, absolutely we will. And this will be based on our institutional customers demand, as they reveal, increasingly, their own tokenisation strategies” commented ANZ Executive Banking Services Portfolio Lead, Nigel Dobson commented at the AFR Banking Summit conference.
Subscribe