Australia's central bank expects to launch a "holistic review" of the country's retail payments regulation once reforms that allow it to regulate buy-now-pay-later and mobile wallet providers come into effect next year, Governor Michele Bullock said.

"This will be an opportunity to consult widely on current regulation as well as on areas where regulation might be required in the interests of safety, competition and efficiency," Bullock said in a speech in Sydney on Tuesday. "This will help us to set our regulatory priorities in the expanded regulatory perimeter."

"As part of the review, we look forward to engaging constructively with industry on these issues," Bullock added.

The review is part of the RBA payment systems board's strategic priorities for 2024 which also include strengthening the resilience of the country's payments infrastructure.

Another priority is to "shape the future of money," Bullock said, referring to a central bank digital currency. The RBA is now planning a project that will examine how different forms of digital money and infrastructure could support the development of tokenized asset markets in Australia, she added.

In her final speech of the year, Bullock didn't reference the economy or monetary policy, having left interest rates at a 12-year high of 4.35% last week. The RBA has signaled further tightening might be needed to cool inflation which remains well above its 2-3% target. Financial market pricing implies the RBA is now done with hikes though the cash rate is expected to remain around current levels until late next year.

Australia's central bank meets next on Feb. 6 and by then will have had a chance to see the inflation reading for the final three months of this year to assess whether it needs to do more.

Source : Bloomberg