In September last year, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Center (DFCRC) invited companies to participate in their central bank digital currency (CBDC) research project. It received 140 use cases at the end of October and today unveiled 15 projects that are ongoing, subject to compliance. Responding to industry demand, it will reopen applications until the end of March. A report is scheduled for mid-year.

Some of the top names involved in the use cases include Mastercard, Intuit, ANZ, and Commonwealth Bank.

The main objective of the program is to explore business models and use cases and their associated benefits and risks. The use cases span both retail CBDC and wholesale CBDC.

“The larger pilot research study to be carried out in parallel will serve two purposes: it will contribute to industry learning by doing and it will contribute to policy makers’ understanding of how a CBDC could potentially benefit the Australian financial system and economy,” said Brad Jones, Assistant to the Governor (Financial System) at the RBA.