Australia’s central bank remains unconvinced of the need for a digital Aussie dollar, despite the continuing shift away from cash transactions.
In a research paper [pdf] last week, the Reserve Bank of Australia said there was still no “strong policy case to introduce a CBDC [central bank digital currency] for retail use” in Australia.
“The main conclusion is that the public policy case for issuing a general purpose CBDC in Australia is still to be made,” the paper states.
“Even though the use of cash for transactions is declining, cash is still widely available and accepted as a means of payment.”
The declaration comes almost three years after governor Philip Lowe first talked down the prospect of the RBA introducing a national digital currency in the near future.
“The case for doing this has not yet been established, but we are open to the idea,” he said just after Bitcoin reached record highs in late 2017.
The new research paper said the RBA’s “view on a retail CBDC remains very much in line with the working hypotheses outlined in 2017”.
With the launch of the New Payments Platform in 2018, the RBA said both households and businesses were now “well served by a modern, efficient and resilient payment system”.
“The NPP represents a major upgrade to the payments system, allowing real-time, data rich, easily addressed account-to-account payments that can be made on a 24/7 basis,” it said.
“Growth of transactions throug ..
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