Australian government to review how regulators oversee bitcoin

The Australian government released its response to the Murray Review, otherwise known as the Financial System Inquiry, a wide-ranging report published last December as part of an effort by the government to make changes to the country’s financial system.

The government said in its response that it would look at the regulatory capacities of both the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) in an effort to create a “graduated” rulemaking process for emerging payments systems, including bitcoin.

“We will clarify powers held by ASIC and the RBA to ensure that regulators have the power to regulate new payment systems in a graduated way, such as digital currencies (e.g. bitcoin) and other payment systems as they emerge,” the government said.

Though it’s the only part of the report that explicitly mentions bitcoin or digital currencies, other measures set to be taken could impact the country’s bitcoin ecosystem.