MAS reveals 15 Global CBDC Challenge finalists

They will present their innovations at the Demo Day during the Singapore FinTech Festival in November.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore on Monday announced the 15 finalists, composed of financial institutions, fintech, and technology solution providers, for the Global CBDC Challenge, a global competition for the development of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) solutions. 

The finalists were ANZ Banking Group Limited, Bitt, Citibank N.A., Singapore Branch, cLabs, Inc. Consensys, Extolabs LLC, Giesecke+Devrient advance52 GmbH, HSBC Bank (Singapore) Limited and HSBC Holdings plc, IBM, IDEMIA, Criteo, IOS Singapore Pte Ltd, Soramitsu, Standard Chartered Bank, and Xfers Pte. Ltd. 

These companies will go through an eight-week Acceleration Phase supported by Tribe Accelerator, where they will develop and refine their solutions. They will also participate in masterclasses and networking sessions with industry experts and will be provided access to the API Exchange Digital Currency Sandbox for the prototyping of their digital currency.

They will present their innovations during the Demo Day as part of the Singapore FinTech Festival 2021 in November, where the top three winners will win S$50,000 each.

The finalists’ applications for grant funding of up to S$200,000 under the MAS Financial Sector Technology and Innovation Proof-of-Concept Scheme will be fast-tracked, the MAS said. 

The challenge received more than 300 submissions from more than 50 countries, more than of which half were from Asia, addressing 12 problem statements related to the areas of CBD Instrument, CBD Distribution, and CBD Infrastructure.

The competition is in partnership with the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, United Nations Capital Development Fund, United Nations High Commission for Refugees, United Nations Development Programme, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

It is supported by technology partners such as Mastercard, Mojaloop Foundation, Partior, R3, Hyperledger and Amazon Web Services.