Afterpay calls on federal government, Reserve Bank to introduce digital currency

Australian financial technology company Afterpay has urged the federal government and the Reserve Bank to introduce a digital "stablecoin” currency as hard cash continues to be phased out of use.

“There’s been a warning here in Australia to a parliamentary inquiry today: this has come from Afterpay which says it believes the government, and indeed, our own Reserve Bank, has got to think about issuing some sort of digital currency,” Sky News business editor Ross Greenwood said.

“And they say the reason for that is if they don’t do it, then somebody else could very well get in there and almost take over the business of running Australia’s currency.

“As we’ve said many times here, people don’t really use hard cash anymore; it’s all about cards, so everything is electronic anyway.”