G+D Wins CBDC Award, Takes on Banknote Collection

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has announced Giesecke+Devrient (G+D) as one of the three winners of its Global CBDC Challenge, concluding the first phase of MAS’ study to explore possible retail CBDC solutions.

The award was made for G+D´s Filia solution, a means of payment that can be universally used and is described as truly inclusive, enabling participation in the digital economy even without a smartphone or a bank account.

It is the third such recent accolade for G+D's digital currency solutions, following awards from the Bank of Thailand and Bank of Ghana.

One of the other winners was the Consensys CBDCgo solution, in association with Visa, which allows users to spend CBDCs without needing to change their payment or acceptance network.

The other was the Criteo, Secretarium and Intel Atomic CBDC solution, which supports anonymity and privacy for small transactions and offers traceability for large transactions for anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism The awards were announced by MAS at the Singapore Fintech festival. It received 300 submissions from over 50 countries. The three winners were selected from 15 finalists, winning S$50,000 each.

Taking on banknote culture and history

Although G+D is investing heavily and making inroads into digital currency, physical currency still remains at its core. As if to emphasise this point, it has announced that the banknote collection foundation HVB Stiftung Geldscheinsammlung will now operate under its umbrella, and under the name Giesecke+Devrient Stiftung Geldscheinsammlung.

With more than 300,000 notes, G+D will therefore be responsible for one of the most important banknote collections in the world.

According to G+D, it has been closely associated with the foundation for many years and has been involved in the banknote collection for over a decade. The collection documents paper currency in great detail and stores banknotes as a means of payment shaped by cultures and history. G+D has been represented on the foundation’s committees for some time now, and the collection has been housed at its premises since 2008.

‘Our banknote collection is probably the world’s largest and most important collection in the field of paper money,’ said Celia von Mitschke-Collande. Together with Kirsten Peter, she is now responsible not only for the Giesecke+Devrient Foundation – which was founded in 2010 to support the arts, culture and education – but also for the banknote collection. ‘It remains our goal to ensure that it can continue to be maintained and scientifically evaluated, but also made accessible to the public digitally or as part of exhibitions. We feel very connected to the subject because of our history.’ The banknote collection was founded as a private collection by Albert Pick. Today, the collection comprises more than 300,000 banknotes and ranges from Chinese paper currency from the 14th century to those currently issued worldwide.