- Australia’s biggest financial institution, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, have announced several ongoing projects in the Web3 space.
- In particular, CBA is experimenting with stablecoins and tokenisation for settling transactions both locally and internationally.
- However, the team’s head of digital assets claims that there’s still a long way to go before blockchain technology is prominent in Australia.
- Politicians must be willing to update older legislation before national regulators can begin to foster innovation within the country.
Aussie banks are often accused of being restrictive when it comes to the crypto markets – and from the customer’s side, they are right. Several “Big Four” institutions have put limits on how investors can transfer money to crypto exchanges, with some reports of de-banking threats for bigger spenders.
However, certain Australian banks have also demonstrated their interest in Web3 as a payment solution – starting with ANZ’s AUD stablecoin it built in conjunction with Chainlink.
Now, the country’s biggest bank – the Commonwealth Bank of Australia – has announced its intention to experiment with digital assets and tokenisation going forward. But there may still be a long way to go before this trend becomes commonplace.
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Commonwealth Bank of Australia Assessing Stablecoin and Tokenisation Projects
Speaking at the Australian Financial Review’s (AFR) crypto Summit this week, CBA’s Managing Director of Blockchain and Digital Assets, Sophie Gilder, revealed several crypto-based projects have been in the works as far back as 2016.
The most relevant experiment is using stablecoins pegged to the Australian dollar as a cheap and fast means to settle payments.
The CBA has also looked at using a native blockchain to process tokenised deposits, which may be more efficient for larger transactions.
Regulators Not to Blame for Lack of Innovation
Much is made of financial regulators as “the bad guys” of the crypto industry – but CBA’s Sophie Gilder deflected the blame away from bodies like ASIC.
While she admitted that the lack of regulatory clarity is a major “bottleneck” preventing significant Web3 innovation within Australia, she argued that regulators lack the proper resources to make the right adjustments.
There are regulators who are often…well resourced to monitor and assess existing products, but I think less well resourced to look at innovative products.
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Ms Gilder turned her attention to policymakers and Governments as being the catalysts for changing crypto regulation in the country.
I am very conscious that regulators can only look at the laws, the legislation that exists in the case law, they can’t actually invent or overreach. I think what we need in Australia is we need political will to implement legislation.
Sophie Gilder, CBA’s Managing Director of Blockchain and Digital AssetsAustralian elections don’t quite get the airtime of their US counterparts, but with campaigns to begin in 2025, it will be interesting to see if national politicians address the crypto industry or push it aside.
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