According to Foresight News, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) issued a strategic statement announcing that it will prioritize the research and development of wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) while suspending the retail version of CBDC plans. Brad Jones, RBA Assistant Governor for Financial Systems, pointed out in a statement that compared to the retail version of CBDC, wholesale CBDC shows more significant potential benefits and faces relatively few challenges.

 

The RBA and Treasury will also conduct some form of public engagement on retail CBDC in 2025, with further research and experimentation to be conducted in the coming years. The RBA and Treasury will publish a further paper in 2027 which will examine the merits and potential forms of a retail CBDC.