The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) is working on the development of a new regulatory framework to address the emergence of new business models centered on digital assets, the Financial Review reports.
The initiative, which is one of the institution's priorities for 2022, aims to protect financial stability and support innovation.
Subscribe to our Telegram channel to stay up to date on the latest crypto and blockchain news.
APRA is collaborating with other Regulatory Council members, as well as international partners. The latter are preparing a list of rules for working with digital assets in relation to banks.
The document refers to the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision's "technology-neutral approach." This involves setting the same capital and liquidity requirements for digital assets when they represent the same risk as traditional assets.
The regulator wants to simplify the prudential framework for small firms, "reducing the burden where possible without sacrificing safety."
The APRA has admitted the introduction of blockchain to digitize transactions could improve regulation.