Xfers, a Southeast Asia based payments leader holding a Major Payment Institution (MPI) license for e-money issuance, together with its partner, SEBA Bank, a FINMA licensed Swiss Bank providing a seamless, secure, and easy-to-use bridge between digital and traditional assets, today announced that they have been named among the 15 finalists for the Global Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) Challenge organised by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

Launched by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and 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 (OECD), the Global CBDC Challenge calls for FinTech companies, financial institutions and solution providers around the world to submit innovative retail CBDC solutions to enhance payment efficiencies and promote financial inclusion.

The joint proposal submitted by Xfers and SEBA Bank was shortlisted from over 300 applications representing over 50 countries and will be presented to the public and a panel of judges at the Singapore Fintech Festival on November 8th, 2021.

Launched in October 2020, StraitsX by Xfers is the first stablecoin initiative focusing on Southeast Asia and issues the StraitsX Singapore dollar, XSGD, a digital token available on the Ethereum and Zilliqa blockchain that is backed one-for-one with the Singapore dollar.

Aymeric Salley, Head of StraitsX, said, “We are delighted to be named finalists for the CBDC challenge by the MAS. We look forward to continuing leveraging our experience as Singapore’s first stablecoin issuer, and working closely with our partner, SEBA Bank, which comes with a wealth of expertise and practical experience in developing CBDCs, having just completed a CBDC experiment with Banque de France in June this year."

Founded in 2018, SEBA Bank is a fully licensed FINMA banking and securities dealer. In June this year, SEBA Bank completed a successful CBDC experiment with the Banque de France, which demonstrated the capacity of distributed ledger technologies to communicate with the Eurosystem’s settlement platform TARGET2-Securities for the settlement of listed securities. This testing is an important contribution towards the development of an EU wide CBDC. 

Matthew Alexander, Head of Digital Corporate Finance & Asset Tokenisation SEBA Bank, commented, “We are thrilled to have been selected by the MAS for this CBDC challenge amongst such a prestigious group of institutions. We look forward to working with our partner Xfers and contributing both our Digital Asset capabilities and recent experience working with the Banque de France CBDC to support the MAS and the Singapore financial centre. At SEBA Bank, we are constantly striving for innovation in the development of digital currencies and digital asset infrastructure. This selection, alongside our partners Xfers, by MAS as a finalist in the CBDC challenge, is a significant validation of our innovation in the development of digital currencies, and builds on our work supporting the Banque de France in CBDC testing. The shortlisting by MAS is testament to SEBA Bank’s extensive network and operations in APAC, with the recent appointment of Sam Lin as APAC CEO, and headcount growth in our Singapore and Hong Kong hubs, further solidifying our presence in the region.”

About StraitsX by Xfers

StraitsX is the pioneering payments infrastructure for the digital assets space in Southeast Asia developed by Singapore-based FinTech Xfers, which is a Major Payment Institution licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore for e-money issuance. StraitsX offers personal and business accounts to deposit, hold and withdraw funds as well as to connect their accounts to digital asset platforms. Business accounts can also access B2B API-enabled payments rails for digital asset platforms and issues the Singapore Dollar-backed stablecoin, XSGD.

About SEBA Bank - The Future of Digital Banking, Investing & Financing

Founded in April 2018 and headquartered in Zug, SEBA Bank is a pioneer in the financial industry and the only global smart bank providing a fully universal suite of regulated banking services in the emerging digital economy. In August 2019, SEBA Bank received a Swiss banking and securities dealer licence – the first time a reputed, regulatory authority such as FINMA has granted a licence to a financial services provider with a core capability in digital assets. The broad, vertically integrated spectrum of services combined with the highest security standards, make SEBA Bank’s value proposition unique - this is why Banque de France selected SEBA Bank to test the integration of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). CVVC Global Report and CB Insights named SEBA Bank as Top 50 Companies within the blockchain ecosystem. Aite Group awarded SEBA Bank with their 2021 Digital Wealth Management Impact Innovation Award in the category “Digital Startup of the Year”.

For more information please visit seba.swiss.

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