The Reserve Bank of Australia strategically focuses on the research and development of wholesale CBDC, while the retail version is temporarily postponed

ChainCatcher news, according to Coindesk, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has released a strategic statement announcing that it will prioritize the development of wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) while postponing plans for a retail version of CBDC. RBA Assistant Governor Brad Jones pointed out in the statement that wholesale CBDC shows more significant potential benefits compared to retail CBDC and faces relatively fewer challenges.

In a subsequent policy speech, Jones emphasized: "Our top priority is to collaborate with the industry to initiate the wholesale CBDC and commercial bank deposit tokenization projects. The research focus will center on new distributed ledger technologies, 'programmability,' and 'atomic settlement,' assessing their potential impact on the Australian financial system and macroeconomy."

According to the latest research report released by the RBA, no clear benefits have been found for the public from a retail CBDC, mainly because Australia's existing retail payment system already meets citizens' needs well. However, the RBA and the Treasury stated that as international experience accumulates and domestic research deepens, this assessment may be adjusted over time.

To this end, the RBA and the Treasury plan to conduct extensive public consultations on retail CBDC in 2025 and will continue in-depth research and empirical experiments over the coming years. The two departments have committed to jointly releasing a comprehensive report in 2027 that systematically explores the potential advantages of retail CBDC and the specific forms it may take.