Central Bank Digital Currencies - does Australia need one?

by AFIA

5 July | 10.30am - 11.30am | Webinar | Deloitte

On 22 March, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) announced that it was actively researching Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) as a complement to existing forms of money. Presently, only commercial banks and certain permitted financial institutions can hold Central Bank money in the form of ‘reserves’ while the retail public can hold money issued by the Central Bank only in form of physical banknotes.

A CBDC is a digital payment instrument, denominated in the national unit of account, that is a direct liability of the Central Bank. It is the legal tender issued by the Central Bank in a digital form as a medium of exchange, store of value and unit of account. In its electronic form, CBDCs have the potential to be widely used by wholesale financial institutions, households and businesses to store value and make payments in a more secure way.

CBDCs have the potential to be the most pervasive innovation in the digital and payments space which will fundamentally impact all participants in the global financial services industry. With cash usage declining in most economies, CBDCs can play a role in maintaining and streamlining the Central Bank’s function of providing money, financial stability and ensuring continued access in a purely digital economy.

Tune in to this webinar to hear Deloitte Partners, Marc Christian Bender and Arjun Gupta explore:

• the introduction to CBDCs and the difference from other digital currencies
• the CBDC journey and global perspectives - Common use cases
• the Australian state of play
  - Consumer needs and adoption considerations
  - Impact to the financial ecosystem.