Australia's competition watchdog, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), has approved the interim plan of a joint venture involving the country's four largest banks—ANZ, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), National Australia Bank (NAB), and Westpac—to proceed with the preparatory work for digital finance cooperation. This regulatory green light represents a critical step for the Australian banking sector's collective exploration of blockchain and digital asset technologies.
ACCC Approval and Cash Transport Context
The ACCC had previously in July 2024 approved the banks' joint provision of approximately AUD 50 million in financial support to cash transport operator Armaguard. The current interim approval clears the way for the joint venture to further develop digital financial infrastructure, demonstrating the regulator's cautious but supportive stance toward the banking industry's digital transformation.
Participation in the RBA's Acacia Project
The big four banks are also participants in the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) Acacia project, which aims to test the application of tokenized assets and stablecoins in wholesale markets. Tokenized assets can enhance the liquidity and settlement efficiency of traditional financial instruments, while stablecoin testing in the wholesale context could pave the way for future central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) or compliant stablecoins.
NAB and ANZ's Specific Developments
NAB recently provided an update on its tokenized term deposit experiment, which uses stablecoins as a settlement mechanism to explore the integration of traditional deposit products with blockchain-based settlement. ANZ, meanwhile, has been involved in the Lygon blockchain project for digitalizing bank guarantees and has established a payment joint venture with European payment processor Worldline, further strengthening its presence in digital payments and blockchain applications.
Overall, Australia's big four banks are accelerating digital finance innovation through joint ventures, central bank collaboration, and individual experiments. The regulatory approval provides legal certainty for subsequent business implementation, and the commercial application of stablecoins and tokenized assets in wholesale markets may be among the first to materialize in Australia.