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(Kitco News) - ANZ, Australia's third-largest bank, has announced the successful completion of its first use case pilot exploring the use of an Australian central bank digital currency (CBDC). The pilot was conducted in conjunction with the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre (DFCRC).
According to a press release from the bank, ANZ partnered with Grollo Carbon Ventures (GCV) to test out trading Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs). The purpose of the pilot was to explore the tokenization of real-world, nature-based assets, beginning with ACCUs.
To accomplish this, ANZ tokenized existing ACCUs and issued its stablecoin, A$DC, which enabled GVC to purchase tokenized ACCUs with near instantaneous settlement using ANZ smart contracts.
All transactions were conducted on a public, permissionless blockchain, which helped demonstrate the ability of digital assets to reduce settlement time and help mitigate settlement-related counter-party risk. A pilot CBDC was used as a risk-free asset to support the issuance of A$DC, the announcement said.
“ANZ is pleased to be working with GCV to test what’s possible as we explore secure access to the digital economy in a way that also supports the community and environment,” said ANZ banking services lead Nigel Dobson. “When applied to carbon markets, tokenisation has the potential to improve efficiency and transparency, reduce risk and preserve the unique characteristics of underlying projects to incentivise investment in climate solutions.”
The RBA originally announced 14 separate use case pilots in March. Along with its pilot for nature-based asset trading, ANZ is also scheduled to be involved with pilots for offline payments, “SuperStream” payments, and CBDC distribution.
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Last year, ANZ became the first bank in Australia to successfully execute a payment with an Australian-bank-issued Australian-dollar stablecoin, the A$DC, using a public, permissionless blockchain.
The overarching purpose of the DFCRC pilot, which was announced by the RBA in August, is to explore use cases for a CBDC in Australia and the potential economic benefits of its introduction.
“This project is an important next step in our research on CBDC,” said Michele Bullock, Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank. “We are looking forward to engaging with a wide range of industry participants to better understand the potential benefits a CBDC could bring to Australia.”
