Brad Jones, Assistant Governor at the RBA, said, “It has also been encouraging that the use case providers invited to participate in the pilot span a wide range of entities in the Australian financial system, from smaller fintech to large financial institutions.”

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) announced in a media release on March 2 that it had begun working with the Digital Futures Collaboration Research Centre (DFCRC) to conduct a pilot of its exploration of potential use cases for a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

The DFCRC is a research centre that explores digital technologies’ potential impacts and implications on financial services. It includes experts from across academia, industry, government, and law. These experts will be used to explore CBDC use cases and develop strategies for making them viable in the Australian financial system.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has selected a handful of entities to lead research in 14 different use-case scenarios to explore the potential uses of a central bank digital currency (CBDC). These entities were chosen after meeting specific criteria set by the RBA and are said to span a wide range of members in the Australian financial system, from smaller fintech to large financial institutions.

The pilot is scheduled to begin in the coming months, with regulators and experts from the Digital Futures Collaboration Research Centre (DFCRC) hoping that the experiments provide valuable insights into the potential benefits of a CBDC.

It is still being determined when the RBA plans to launch its live pilot or what form it might take. However, given the increasing interest in CBDCs worldwide, it is likely that more information about this project will emerge over the coming months.