Commonwealth Bank of Australia : Australia's central bank launches digital currency project

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's central bank on Monday said it was launching a project to explore the potential use and implications of a wholesale form of central bank digital currency (CBDC) using distributed ledger technology (DLT).

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) said it was partnering with Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, Perpetual and ConsenSys Software, a blockchain technology company, on the collaborative project.

The project will involve the development of a proof-of-concept for the issuance of a tokenised form of CBDC that can be used by wholesale market participants for the funding, settlement and repayment of a tokenised syndicated loan on an Ethereum-based DLT platform.

(Reporting by Wayne Cole; editing by Diane Craft)