Digital Economy

Foundational infrastructures for an inclusive digital economy 

26 April 2021 

MAS published a Report on the foundational digital infrastructure necessary for an inclusive digital economy and seamless cross-border transactions around the world. Such infrastructure would enable interoperable solutions and seamless digital services to reach more people and businesses at lower cost and greater convenience. At the launch, MAS Managing Director Mr Ravi Menon highlighted that digitalisation must be end-to-end to create a truly efficient and inclusive digital economy. He shared on the four foundational digital infrastructures: digital identity, authorisation and consent, payments interoperability and data exchange, and how Singapore has implemented each of these. 

Global Challenge for Retail Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) solutions

28 June 2021

The Global CBDC Challenge sought to promote innovative retail CBDC solutions to enhance payment efficiencies and promote financial inclusion. The challenge attracted over 300 submissions from more than 50 countries. Participants were invited to address 12 problem statements relating to CBDC instruments, distribution, and infrastructure, covering topics such as inclusivity, interoperability, and programmability. 15 finalists went through an eight-week acceleration phase. The solutions were pitched to an international panel of judges during the Singapore FinTech Festival 2021 and three winners were selected.

MAS and Banque de France (BdF) break new ground in Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) experimentation 

8 July 2021

MAS and BdF announced the successful completion of a wholesale cross-border payment and settlement experiment using CBDC. The experiment simulated cross-border and cross-currency transactions for the Singapore dollar and Euro CBDC, and was the first to apply automated market making and liquidity management capabilities to reap cross-border payment and settlement efficiencies.

A retail Central Bank Digital Currency: Economic considerations in the Singapore context 

9 November 2021 

MAS published an information paper on its initial assessment of the economic case for a retail CBDC in Singapore, and its potential implications for financial stability and monetary policy. 

Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub and Central Banks of Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and South Africa Develop Experimental Multi-CBDC Platform for International Settlements

22 March 2022 

The BIS Innovation Hub, the Reserve Bank of Australia, Bank Negara Malaysia, MAS, and the South African Reserve Bank completed the prototypes for a common platform enabling international settlements using multiple central bank digital currencies (mCBDCs). Led by the Innovation Hub’s Singapore Centre, Project Dunbar proved that financial institutions could use CBDCs issued by participating central banks to transact directly with each other on a shared platform.

BIS Innovation Hub and MAS develop prototype supervisory analytics platform

31 March 2022 

BIS Innovation Hub Singapore Centre and MAS developed a new prototype platform integrating regulatory data and analytics. Project Ellipse successfully demonstrated how regulatory and other data, such as articles and news, could be integrated into a single platform to help regulatory authorities identify potential risks to individual banks and the banking system.

Project Guardian: MAS partners the industry to pilot use cases in digital assets

31 May 2022 

MAS announced the commencement of Project Guardian, a collaborative initiative with the financial industry to partner the industry to explore the tokenisation of financial assets and develop the future of finance infrastructure. Project Guardian will test the feasibility of applications in asset tokenisation and DeFi while managing risks to financial stability and integrity.