The Reserve Bank of Australia has laid out intentions to make its technology services more resilient, and to make better use of the data it holds, in its latest corporate plan.
The central bank released its latest strategic plan on Wednesday, saying āpart of its strategic focus areas will be to strengthen the resilience of technology servicesā and āharness the power of dataā. [pdf]
The report notes that maintaining ākey system resilienceā is a strategic focus area as the RBA āseeks to avoid system downtime caused by unplanned eventsā
āThis will be achieved by minimising security vulnerabilities to protect against cyber-attacks, enhancing compliance and awareness of security threats and controls, improving the stability of Bank systems, and reducing the complexity of the Bankās technology environment,ā the report states.
The RBA intends to ākeep technology systems patched for security vulnerabilitiesā, āincrease automation of core technology delivery processesā, to invest in technology talent and adopt cloud services āwhere appropriateā.
The bank also highlighted āthe maturity of data governance and data managementā as keys to making better use of that data.
It also mentioned a refresh to its strategic platforms and tools for storing and analysing data will take place alongside migrating data from legacy systems āand consolidate strategic platforms with modern toolsā.Ā
āAdditional major changes could be in prospect if new forms of digital money, such as CBDC and stablecoins, are adopted.
āOver the period of this corporate plan, we will work with participants in the payments system on policy issues relating to both legacy and emerging payment methodsā.
The added the RBA will work with the treasury to apply payments system regulatory reforms, continue to ārealise the potential of the NPPā alongside international payment transparency, and support cash usage while the cheques system winds down.
It also stated it intends to conduct āresearch with external partners on use cases for CBDC [central bank digital currencies] and evaluating the case for issuing CBDC.ā
Some research is already under way, with RBA partnering with the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre (DFCRC) earlier this August.
The DFCRC officially launched this week, with the Minister for Financial Services and Assistant Treasurer Stephen JonesĀ calling it "a pivotal point in the way commerce is conductedā.
Gloss