Twenty-one shortlisted teams from around the world competed to develop innovative technological solutions to improve cross-border payments.

Solutions aim to reduce illicit finance risk; improve liquidity for emerging market and developing economy currencies in cross-border payments; and foster multilateral cross-border CBDC platforms.

The winning teams are: Secretarium Ltd, Millicent Labs, and Knox Networks.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today announced the winners of the G20 TechSprint 2023 challenge during an award ceremony in Mumbai.

This year's TechSprint was launched last May by the RBI and BIS to promote innovative solutions aimed at improving cross-border payments, under India's G20 presidency.

The 21 teams presented their prototypes to an independent panel of judges convened by the RBI in Mumbai (list below). Here are the winners for each of the three problem statements:

Team Secretarium Ltd. from the UK won the category for problem statement #1, on fighting money laundering, combating financing of terrorism, tax and sanctions evasion, with their solution on transaction monitoring and protecting anonymity and privacy using secure privacy technology.

Team Millicent Labs from the UK won the category for problem statement #2, on improving liquidity in cross-border payments between emerging and developing countries' currencies, with their hybrid decentralised exchange for CBDCs, which features automated market makers and traditional order books, to optimise liquidity and reduce volatility risk.

Team Knox Networks from the US won the category for problem statement #3 on developing multilateral cross-border CBDC platforms, with their multilateral CBDC solution based on File-Based Digital Assets (FBDAs).

Identifying and developing novel solutions to common problems has been at the heart of the G20 TechSprint. The 2023 edition has again brought forward innovative solutions to help address challenges in cross-border payments, a G20 priority. The BIS Innovation Hub is proud to partner with the RBI in this year's G20 TechSprint to contribute to the global efforts in enhancing cross-border payments with a focus on emerging and developing countries. It allows us to push boundaries and explore uncharted territories, with the shared goal of making a positive impact on societies. I would like to congratulate the winners and also all the finalists for their participation and efforts in presenting new and innovative ways to address the challenges proposed.

     --Cecilia Skingsley, Head of the BIS Innovation Hub