MAS Global CBDC Challenge Winners Revealed – Singapore Fintech Festival 2021

During the conclusion of the Singapore Fintech Festival 2021, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has confirmed that there are three new winners of the global CBDC challenge after five months of competition. The winners were chosen from over 300 submissions from more than 50 countries.

Giesecke+Devrient, Criteo, and Consensys were believed to have created retail CBDC solutions. Their solutions increase payment efficiencies, boost financial inclusion, and support the wider digitalization push in the economy.

The winners were chosen from 15 finalists who had pitched their solutions during a demo day to an international panel of judges. Each of them received a cash prize of S$50,000.

While the Consensys CBDCgo solution, in partnership with Visa, enables the users to spend CBDCs without having to change their payment or acceptance network, the Criteo, Secretarium, and Intel Atomic CBDC solution powers anonymity and privacy for small transactions and provides traceability for huge transactions for anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism purposes.

Eventually, G+D Filia offers a means of payment that is all-inclusive and enables participation in the digital economy without using a bank account or a smartphone. That challenge was held in partnership with United Nations Capital Development Fund, the International Monetary Fund, United Nations Development Programme, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, United Nations High Commission for Refugees, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

MAS To Set Up CBDC Network

After this challenge, the MAS will set up the technology network and capabilities needed to create a retail CBDC system. The MAS confirmed that it will work with financial institutions to study how the retail CBDC can get implemented with Project Orchid. They will then lay the foundation for future decisions on retail CBDC issuance.

The chief fintech officer at MAS, Sopnendu Mohanty, said:

“We congratulate the winners of the Global CBDC Challenge and all finalists who have demonstrated the potential of retail CBDC solutions to unlock new use cases with programmable money and create pathways to broader financial access. We would also like to thank the judges and partners of this global challenge for the collaboration to discover and develop innovative retail CBDC solutions.”