Australia payments draft eyes stablecoin interoperability

Australia’s future payment rails may need to support stablecoins and tokenized fiat money. A new draft vision says account-to-account systems could adapt as tokenized money moves closer to mainstream use.

The draft was co-developed by the Account-to-Account Payments Roundtable. Members include AusPayNet, Australian Payments Plus, the Reserve Bank of Australia, and the Commonwealth Treasury.

The document lists digital assets among the outside forces that could shape Australia’s future payment systems. It says tokenized money could change how payments are settled and automated.

Stablecoins move into payments planning

The draft said, “Tokenised forms of money, such as stablecoins and tokenised liabilities, are moving from experimentation to adoption.”

It added that programmable, ledger-based value could support new settlement models. These systems may also allow payments to run with wider availability and more automation.

Moreover, the document said account-to-account systems “may need to support secure interoperability between account-based money and tokenised representations of fiat currency.”

This would allow funds to move between bank-based money and tokenized versions of fiat currency. The draft said trust, reliability, and security must remain central to any future system.

Australia advances digital asset rules

The payments draft comes as Australia expands work on tokenized money and digital asset regulation.

In July 2025, the RBA and the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre selected use cases for Project Acacia. The project studies settlement in tokenized asset markets.

The RBA said possible settlement assets include stablecoins, bank deposit tokens, a pilot wholesale CBDC, and exchange settlement account tools.

Australia’s Treasury also proposed digital asset laws in November. The rules would create digital asset platforms and tokenized custody platforms as new financial products requiring an Australian Financial Services Licence.