The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will reportedly forge an alliance with numerous entities to deep-dive into the potential adaptation of a wholesale CBDC across the nation, using Ether-based DLT. 

Specifically, the RBA has reportedly teamed up with the Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, the financial services firm Perpetual and software firm ConsenSys to develop a proof-of-concept for “the issuance of a tokenized form of CBDC”. 

It particularly emphasized on the possibility of wholesale players in the market utilizing the digital currency to support DLT-based tokenized syndicated loans and deep-dive into the implications of delivery-versus-payment security settlements with cross-chain atomic swaps.

“With this project we are aiming to explore the implications of a CBDC for efficiency, risk management and innovation in wholesale financial market transactions. While the case for the use of a CBDC in these markets remains an open question, we are pleased to be collaborating with industry partners to explore if there is a future role for a wholesale CBDC in the Australian payments system,” Reserve Bank of Australia Assistant Governor Michele Bullock.

The initiative is reportedly included in an ongoing about-face for the RBA, regarding CBDC policy. The Director at the payment department of the RBA reportedly disclosed the bank would keep working on studying CBDCs, regardless of the lack of strong policy cases for the issuance of one, back in September this year.