RBA Consults on Central Bank Reserve Backing for Wholesale Stablecoins
Key points
- The RBA has opened a consultation on using central bank reserves to settle tokenised transactions, with responses due by 30 October 2026.
- The paper proposes synchronising DLT platforms with Australia's RITS and FSS real-time gross settlement systems.
- Project Acacia trials, run with the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre, directly inform the consultation's design thinking.
- Stablecoin issuers that participated in Acacia, including Forte, expressed a preference for holding central bank reserves as backing for wholesale tokens.
- A structural gap identified in Acacia means that, under current RITS Regulations, a stablecoin issuer's earmarked reserves are legally indistinguishable from a bank's own ESA funds if that bank fails.
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has launched a consultation examining how central bank money could underpin the settlement of tokenised transactions on distributed ledgers. At its core, the paper explores synchronisation between distributed ledger technology (DLT) platforms and Australia’s existing real-time gross settlement infrastructure, specifically RITS and the FSS. Submissions close on 30 October 2026.
The more forward-looking dimension of the consultation centres on stablecoin design. During Project Acacia, the RBA’s tokenisation trials conducted with the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre (DFCRC), stablecoin issuers signalled a clear preference for backing their wholesale tokens with central bank reserves rather than commercial bank money. The RBA is now putting structure around what that could look like, though the paper stops short of clarifying whether any future access to central bank reserves would be confined to wholesale instruments.
A specific Acacia case study sharpens the stakes. Stablecoin issuer Forte arranged for a bank to hold central bank reserves equivalent to Forte’s deposited funds, but no legal separation existed between those earmarked reserves and the bank’s broader Exchange Settlement Account (ESA) holdings. Under the RITS Regulations, ESA holders act as principal only, never as agent or trustee, meaning that in a bank failure Forte’s backing would be legally indistinguishable from the bank’s own reserves. That structural gap is precisely the problem the consultation appears designed to address.