Australia urged to bolster digital finance & fraud defences

Ripple and Experian executives have urged policymakers and financial institutions in Australia to strengthen digital finance infrastructure and fraud defences as fintech adoption accelerates.

Their comments come amid growing regulatory activity around digital assets and a sharp rise in consumer concern about online identity theft.

Ross Edwards, senior director of global financial institutions at Ripple, said Australia is moving beyond proof-of-concept projects into a phase that requires market-scale infrastructure for digital assets. He pointed to the conclusion of Project Acacia, an industry pilot that explored tokenised assets and real-time settlement using stablecoins.

"Project Acacia has wrapped up, and the focus in Australia is shifting from pilots to building infrastructure that actually works at scale. The Digital Assets Framework Act gives institutions a clearer runway to do that, with licensing and custody rules taking shape ahead of the regime starting in 2027.

Our Project Acacia pilot with Zerocap and Chainlink demonstrated that AUD securities can trade 24/7 and settle in real time using RLUSD, our enterprise-grade stablecoin. This proved stablecoins have a clear and complementary role alongside other forms of digital money. The focus now should be on scaling the potential of tokenised assets as Australia's regulatory framework takes shape, delivering on the $24 billion digital finance opportunity.

This isn't about doing everything at once. It's about picking a few clear priorities that deliver real value and building out from there as ASIC's roadmap takes shape. Get that right, and Australia won't just be keeping pace globally; it'll be one of the markets other regulators point to," Edwards said.

The Digital Assets Framework Act is expected to define licensing and custody rules for digital asset service providers over the next few years. This is likely to influence how banks, brokers and fintechs design settlement systems, handle client assets and integrate tokenised instruments into existing market infrastructure.

Project Acacia, involving Ripple, Zerocap and Chainlink, tested how Australian dollar-denominated securities could move on-chain continuously. Participants used RLUSD, Ripple's stablecoin, as the settlement asset for trades. The pilot suggested tokenised securities and stablecoins could operate alongside central bank money and other digital forms of value.

Attention is now turning to which use cases regulators and industry will prioritise first. Edwards argued that a small set of projects with clear economic benefit should lead, with broader adoption following as the Australian Securities and Investments Commission sets out its longer-term approach.

As digital asset pilots expand, fraud specialists warn that criminal groups are also adopting advanced tools. Richard Atkinson, head of fraud and identity at Experian A/NZ, said consumer anxiety about identity crime in Australia is high and rising.

"As fintech continues to transform how consumers access financial services, digital safety has become fundamental to maintaining trust. Our latest Fraud in the Age of AI: Identity, Risk and Consumer Behaviour report found that 90% of Australians are concerned about identity theft online, while more than half, 56%, have already experienced online fraud or identity theft.

AI is rapidly increasing the scale and sophistication of fraud. Fraudsters are using AI to create convincing fake identities and manipulated documents, making them harder to detect through traditional verification processes. At the same time, our research with Forrester Consulting found that 73% of Australian organisations believe their current fraud technology cannot keep pace with evolving threats.

Fintech innovation has an important role to play in closing this gap. As more financial services journeys move online, organisations need to identify earlier when customer-submitted materials have been manipulated or generated using AI, without adding unnecessary friction for legitimate customers. Experian's recent partnership with Resistant AI reflects this shift, adding specialist document fraud intelligence to Experian's broader fraud, identity and decisioning capabilities as organisations look to strengthen trust in digital onboarding," Atkinson said.

Experian has expanded its focus on document verification as banks and fintechs digitise more customer onboarding and credit assessment processes. Its partnership with Resistant AI adds specialised detection of manipulated or synthetic documents to Experian's fraud and identity products.

These parallel developments in tokenisation and fraud detection suggest a more mature phase for Australian fintech. The sector is increasingly focused on regulatory design, operational resilience and crime prevention alongside innovation in digital asset trading and real-time settlement.