MAS announces CBDC challenge winners

The Monetary Authority of Singapore has announced the winners of its global CBDC challenge.

The winners were Consensys, Criteo and Giesecke+Devrient (G+D).

Even though MAS introduced a CBDC earlier this year, the solutions that increase payment efficiencies, improve financial inclusion and support digitalisation across economies are yet to be developed.

The authority’s managing director – Ravi Menon – said that, should they be issued, “a digital Singapore dollar issued by MAS will be safe, widely accepted and bear the authority of the state”.

But he also noted that a retail CBDC would be risky during times of economic stress. And even in normal times, “if people held a significant portion of their deposits in the form of digital Singapore dollars with MAS, it would considerably reduce our banks’ ability to make loans”.

Consensys CBDCgo solution, in association with Visa, allows users to spend CBDCs without needing to change their payment or acceptance network.

The Criteo, Secretarium and Intel Atomic CBDC solution supports anonymity and privacy for small transactions and offers traceability for large transactions for anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism purposes.

Building inclusive public digital currency

Finally, Munich-based G+D Filia provides a means of payment that is inclusive and enables participation in the digital economy without a smartphone or a bank account.

G+D Filia explained that under the slogan ‘Building a truly inclusive public digital currency’, the company presented its CBDC solution Filia, which focuses on secure, consecutive offline payments.

“Our solution helps central banks not only build the necessary infrastructures for a digital currency, but it also empowers everyone to participate in the digital economy,” the company commented.

With its ‘Project Orchid’, MAS, which recently claimed stablecoins can have a legal place in the country’s financial sector, will partner with financial institutions to study how a retail CBDC can be implemented and lay the foundation for future decisions on retail CBDC issuance.

Sopnendu Mohanty, MAS chief fintech officer said there were plenty of possibilities within the retail CBDC solutions that could unlock new use cases with programmable money and create pathways to broader financial access.