Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) announced it’s joining the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and Digital Finance Collaborative Research Centre (DFCRC) project to help research domestic wholesale tokenized asset markets with the aim of making significant improvements to the $350 billion repo market.
The RBA has chosen CBA, J.P. Morgan, the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) and HQLAx, including its trusted third party, Deutsche Börse Group, as part of Project Acacia to evaluate how digital currencies and digital collateral records could deliver greater efficiency and liquidity with lower risk in the strategically important repo market.
The project will leverage Kinexys Digital Assets, J.P. Morgan’s multi-asset tokenization platform, CBA’s Digital Assets Platform, HQLAx collateral mobility solution and the local expertise of ASX.
Sophie Gilder, CBA’s managing director of blockchain and digital assets, said in a statement that the project brings together globally recognized digital asset leaders and critical financial markets infrastructure providers to explore how digital currencies and tokenization can ensure the global competitiveness of Australia’s financial markets.
“The repo market, with its critical role in liquidity management and monetary policy implementation, represents an ideal starting point for this exploration,” she said.
“As one of the first bank-led blockchain platforms, we have delivered many industry firsts, from programmable payments for corporate clients to instant settlement between US dollars, euros and British sterling. Since inception, Kinexys has processed over $2 trillion in transaction volume,” said Bianca Bates, head of J.P. Morgan Payments in Australia and New Zealand, in a statement.