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Leveraging digital finance innovation in markets and cross-border payments could help unlock around $19 billion per year in economic gains, research has revealed.
Digital finance innovation key to economic gain, research shows
18 June 2025
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8 minute read
New research from the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre (DFCRC) and the Digital Economy Council of Australia (DECA) has found that digital finance innovation could unlock one per cent of Australia’s GDP, equating to around $19 billion.
The report, The Economic Impact Potential of Digital Finance Innovation in Australia, revealed that digital finance innovation in the two segments of markets and cross-border payments could give Australia around $7.2 billion and $11.4 billion per year, respectively.
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According to the research, the asset class with the largest potential for economic gain was foreign exchange, estimated at $7.2 billion annually, followed by investment funds, private/public credit and private equity due to substantial current inefficiencies and moderate turnover.
It was also revealed that on its current trajectory, digital finance innovation was only expected to unlock around $1.8 billion per year of economic gains by 2030 due to the substantial time it took to adopt industry-wide changes.
Talis Putnins, DFCRC chief scientist, said the researchers were looking forward to what the further stages of the research would reveal in terms of the additional potential economic gains that could be realised.
“We’re currently at a pivotal juncture for digital finance globally and Australia has a strategic opportunity to capitalise on this and position itself as a competitive, innovation-friendly financial hub. This research highlights the large potential economic gains that can be unlocked via digital finance innovation in just two key segments alone,” he said.
“While our research shows Australia isn’t currently on track to realise even half of the potential economic gains by 2030, the good news is that Australia is at a key fork in the road in terms of where we go from here and by working together, and at pace, we can choose a path that allows us to seize this opportunity and make Australia a digital finance leader.”
DFCR and DECA said while the current trajectory of digital finance innovation wasn’t that positive, the research highlighted the opportunity to accelerate adoption to unlock more of the gains sooner and could be achieved through a combination of innovation-enabling regulatory, policy initiatives and greater industry-wide collaboration.
The report used a methodology that measured how digital finance innovation enhanced the exchange of value, facilitating more exchange in existing markets and creating new exchange of value in areas where markets did not previously exist.
Amy-Rose Goodey, DECA chief executive, said the methodology developed by DFCRC encompassed the contributions that digital finance could make to economic productivity uplift and GDP.
"In DECA’s ongoing engagement with the Government, this type of robust, evidence-based economic analysis has been explicitly identified as necessary,” she said.
“This body of work has already been raised in policy discussions as a critical contribution to understanding the economic value of digital finance and the broader impact on Australia’s future. It lays the groundwork for more informed, coordinated decisions as we shape the next chapter of Australia’s digital economy."
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