ANZ today announced it has been selected to act as nominated distributor for selected participants in the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre’s (DFCRC) Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) pilot.
As nominated distributor, ANZ will distribute CBDC to selected pilot participants on behalf of the RBA. ANZ has also been chosen to test three use cases across Super Fund payments, offline payments, and the tokenisation of carbon credits.
ANZ Banking Services Lead Nigel Dobson said: “We are pleased to support the RBA as nominated distributor for non-Exchange Settlement Account holders in this pilot program. The CBDC pilot is an important research opportunity for the Australian economy and broader payments ecosystem.”
ANZ has proven experience in digital asset capability, successfully executing the first ever Australian-bank issued Australian-dollar stablecoin, A$DC, payment through a public permissionless blockchain transaction last March. The bank’s A$DC was also used to buy a digital representation of Australian carbon credits in June.
Mr Dobson said: “At ANZ, we’ve been exploring this space for some time and we’re focusing on how we can leverage our in-house talent, combined with the knowledge of our partners, to offer the best possible processes and technologies to the pilot program.”
“We will continue exploring new ways for customers to transact and trade value with new financial market infrastructure.”
The purpose of the pilot, announced by the RBA in 2022, is to explore use cases for a CBDC in Australia and the potential economic benefits of introducing one.
More information on the CBDC pilot can be found here.