Financial Services Minister officially launches Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre
The Minister for Financial Services and Assistant Treasurer Hon. Stephen Jones MP (pictured) officially launched the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre (DFCRC) yesterday, with more than 100 guests in attendance at the ASX.
The DFCRC is a cross-disciplinary consortium whose mission is to pioneer research and commercialisation for the emerging digital finance sector in Australia and globally. In June 2021, the Centre received grant funding of $60 million for 10 years from the federal government. The DFCRC has a Board and Executive Team, University, and Industry Partners, along with an impressive body of new students who are undertaking PhDs in Digital Finance with the Centre from 2022.
“We are at a pivotal point in the way commerce is conducted,” Minister Jones told the audience.
“The important research role the DFCRC will play could quite literally drive the way commerce is done over the rest of this century.”
“It is the mission of the government to ensure that innovation in the financial services market brings together the legal, technical and financial streams that will create challenges to the traditional way (of commerce) to create new possibilities,” Minister Jones said.
Paul O’Sullivan, Chairman of ANZ Group, a DFCRC partner, said, “we welcome the establishment of the DFCRC and look forward to being an active participant in its projects alongside our regulators, academia and industry groups.”
“We might not know just how the future will evolve but we do know some of these ventures will become very significant, even transformative, and we want to understand, participate, and contribute where we can. I am confident the DFCRC will be a cornerstone in this transformation in Australia and I and my colleagues at ANZ are looking forward to its progress,” Paul O’Sullivan said.
DFCRC CEO Andreas Furche said the Centre is about the development of the next generation financial system, where digital representation of assets means ownership, and where trading and settlement happens instantly, anywhere, anytime.
“We are proud to mark the official launch of the DFCRC and kick off the beginning of an exciting 10-year journey.”
“Prioritising areas where digital finance could be a game changer for Australia, we will test, develop, and pioneer applications in a world where all asset ownership will be digitised. We look forward to working closely with industry, regulatory and research partners to achieve this common goal,” Dr Furche said.
On 9 Aug, the Reserve Bank announced it was collaborating with the DFCRC on a research project to explore use cases for a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in Australia.
To date, the DFCRC has 25 partners from the finance industry, academia and regulatory sectors to develop and harness the opportunities arising from the transformation of financial markets – the digitisation of assets that can be traded and exchanged directly and in real-time on digital platforms.
