Australian Payments Plus (AP+) has been selected to participate in the next stage of Project Acacia.
The project is a research led by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre (DFCRC). It explores how different forms of digital money and associated infrastructure could support the development of wholesale tokenised asset markets. Following the pilot from 2023, the Acacia will now develop and test use cases for settlement in tokenised asset markets, with feedback and insights from industry players.
More about RBA’s tokenisation pilot
Besides the potential benefits of tokenisation, the RBA 2024 research suggested that Australian capital markets issuers can save up to USD 13 billion per year. By participating, AP+ aims to enable value to be exchanged safely and reliably, including through its real-time payments platform, the NPP.
CBDCs and other forms of digital money, like stablecoins, can potentially transform money movement in the country’s economy. Conversations about CBDCs are happening globally, including in Korea and China, and AP+ has been selected to evaluate three interconnected use cases for the assets, to determine wholesale digital asset settlement and tokenised applications.
The first use case examines how multiple types of digital money operate together within a shared framework for better interoperability. The second use case explores what new services or frameworks are needed to coordinate settlement across the different asset classes and platforms, helping ensure that future systems are secure and efficient. The last test will regard how the NPP can be utilised to settle wholesale tokenised assets by comparing different models of settlement.
Some other pilot participants will also integrate the use cases in collaboration with AP+. The operator of real-time payments infrastructure was chosen as it is well-positioned to offer industry-wide development. The project allows AP+ to explore how it can support the transition into emerging forms of wholesale digital settlement and improve the payments ecosystem.
