Singapore central bank releases shortlist of 15 companies developing retail CBDC

The 15 shortlisted companies will receive mentorship from the Monetary Authority of Singapore and “gain access to the APIX digital currency sandbox to rapidly prototype digital currency solutions.”
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has shortlisted 15 participants in its Global CBDC Challenge to help build an in-house retail central bank digital currency (CBDC).
An announcement shared by MAS showed that the finalists include six companies from Singapore, four from the United States, and one company each from Australia, Barbados, Germany, France and Switzerland, of which only three winners will be selected to deploy retail CBDCs in Singapore.
As reported, shortly after Singapore’s central bank announced cash prizes for digital currency ideas on June 28, the challenge had more than 300 fintech companies participating in more than 50 countries.
The global finalists include ANZ Banking Group Limited (Australia), Bitt (Barbados), Giesecke+Devrient advance52 GmbH (Germany), Criteo (France) and Soramitsu (Switzerland).
Locally, the shortlisted Singaporean consortium includes Citibank, HSBC Bank plc and HSBC Holdings plc, IDEMIA, IOG Singapore Pte Ltd, Standard Chartered Bank and Xfers Pte Ltd.
Companies headquartered in the United States include cLabs Inc., Consensys, Extolabs LLC and IBM.
The initiative to build a retail CBDC for Singapore will be supplemented by a SGD 50,000 ($37,000) cash prize. As discussed in a previous announcement, the 15 finalists will receive mentorship from the Monetary Authority of Singapore and “gain access to the APIX Digital Currency Sandbox to rapidly prototype digital currency solutions.”
The sandbox environment will include more than 100 APIs related to core banking and payments, and will also have a digital currency API from Mastercard. Now, the finalists will have the opportunity to pitch their CBDC solutions at the Singapore Fintech Festival scheduled to be held from November 8 to November 12, 2021.
Singaporean authorities have been making pro-cryptocurrency moves throughout 2021. The Monetary Authority of Singapore recently issued an “in-principle approval” to Australian cryptocurrency exchange Independent Reserve, allowing the company to “operate as a regulated provider of digital payment token (‘DPT’) services.”
Singapore reportedly has a long list of 170 cryptocurrency exchange applicants, including Binance and Gemini, that are awaiting approval to operate within its jurisdiction.