The Reserve Bank of Australia has moved to deepen Australia’s strategy for tokenised finance, opening a consultation on how its core settlement systems could support tokenised assets and privately issued digital money, while publishing an updated paper on retail central bank digital currency research. The consultation seeks industry submissions on how the Reserve Bank Information and Transfer System, known as RITS, and related settlement services could evolve to enable settlement in a tokenised ecosystem without undermining safety and financial stability. It is explicitly framed to explore practical changes to settlement arrangements that would let regulated market participants settle tokenised securities, stablecoins, and other tokenised instruments against central bank liabilities. Why this matters Tokenisation is the process of representing financial assets as digital tokens that can be moved, owned, and settled on distributed ledgers or token platforms. If done under strong legal and operational safeguards, tokenisation promises faster settlement, lower counterparty risk, and new market structures for everything from wholesale securities to cross border payments. But tokenisation also raises questions about custody, finality of settlement, resilience of settlement rails, and the regulatory perimeter for token issuers and intermediaries. By seeking views on how RITS would interact with a tokenised payments and settlement landscape, the Reserve Bank is signalling that it wants to avoid a fragmented patchwork of private settlement systems, while also enabling industry innovation. Key components of the consultation The consultation asks stakeholders to consider a range of technical and policy options, including: - How RITS and the Fast Settlement Service could provide settlement finality for tokenised assets. - Legal and governance changes needed to support tokenised settlement in Australia, including changes to settlement finality rules and trust arrangements. - Practical standards for interoperability and messaging between token platforms and existing payment rails. - The role of regulated custodians and the circumstances under which stablecoins, or other privately issued tokens, could be used for settlement. - How to ensure operational resilience and cyber security when on chain activity becomes integral to mainstream payments and settlement. Complementary CBDC update Alongside the consultation, the Reserve Bank published an updated assessment of retail central bank digital currency work in the Australian context. The update reiterates that a retail CBDC is not a policy for immediate implementation, but it clarifies the public policy tradeoffs and how a retail CBDC could interact with privately issued tokenised money and the existing payments ecosystem. The bank highlighted Project Acacia, an ongoing program to research tokenisation in wholesale markets and how central bank services could adapt to support tokenised settlement. Project Acacia has already run pilot work with industry participants to test tokenised settlement models and the new consultation intends to gather broader perspectives ahead of any design decisions. Responses and timeline The consultation sets a deadline for submissions, allowing banks, market operators, crypto firms, custodians, technology providers and consumer groups to lay out technical designs, legal drafting proposals and risk mitigations. The Reserve Bank has indicated it will use submissions to shape later workstreams that could include technical pilots and further regulatory engagement with Treasury and domestic regulators. What to watch next Stakeholder responses will be critical in shaping how quickly tokenised finance moves from pilot projects to mainstream clearing and settlement in Australia. Policymakers will also be watching international developments in stablecoin regulation and how other central banks integrate tokenised settlement with central bank money. For crypto market participants, the consultation is an opportunity to influence how settlement finality, custody and interoperability are defined in Australian law and practice. For traditional financial institutions, it is a prompt to consider operational and legal changes if tokenised instruments become a material share of market activity. The consultation represents a step in a broader trend of central banks and governments reassessing how core financial infrastructure can adapt to tokenisation while protecting consumers and preserving financial stability. The Reserve Bank’s approach balances caution with a willingness to engage industry on practical implementation issues that could shape the future of payments and securities settlement in Australia.