The Monetary Authority of Singapore announced on 23 October 2026 that Bank Negara Malaysia and the Bank of Thailand have joined the BLOOM initiative as policymaker members. Through the expanded platform, the three central banks will work with industry participants to develop common approaches for the cross-border use of digital money, including how tokenised deposits and regulated stablecoins can be accepted, exchanged and settled across institutions, networks and jurisdictions. The announcement extends the coordinated framework from its original bilateral scope to three jurisdictions with immediate effect.
BLOOM is a public-private initiative that brings together policymakers, financial institutions, payment networks and technology providers. The Monetary Authority of Singapore, Bank Negara Malaysia and Bank of Thailand will deepen engagement on settlement infrastructure and frameworks that promote interoperability for cross-border digital money transactions. This includes the application of relevant international standards and jurisdiction-specific supervisory expectations while allowing for differences in local requirements. The participant list has also expanded to include Airwallex, Mastercard, Maybank, Monee, Nium, Ripple, ShopeePay, Visa and the World Bank Group.
Participants will focus on three specific areas. The first examines how financial institutions accept different forms of digital money for cross-border transactions, how counterparties contract with one another, and how transactions are settled across institutions and markets in different jurisdictions. The second addresses interoperability across digital money arrangements, including technical and operational approaches to enable systems to operate across networks, infrastructures and borders. The third covers programmable controls such as identity verification, sanctions screening and transaction controls.
The future of finance will involve multiple forms of digital money operating across different institutions and markets.
The development of implementation frameworks and alignment of commercial and operating arrangements is intended to reduce the need for financial institutions to establish separate arrangements with each counterparty or market. This changes the structural terms for participation by lowering implementation costs and improving time to market for compliant cross-border arrangements. The involvement of the three central banks ensures that public policy and regulatory considerations are integrated as these approaches are developed. Earlier background from 2025 showed initial BLOOM participants focusing on payments, treasury and trade finance applications.
Mr Leong Sing Chiong, Deputy Managing Director (Markets and Development) at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, stated that collaboration among policymakers and industry is needed to address practical issues around acceptance, settlement and interoperability. Mr Aznan bin Abdul Aziz, Deputy Governor at Bank Negara Malaysia, and Dr Daranee Saeju, Deputy Governor for Payment Systems Stability and Financial Services Supervision at the Bank of Thailand, welcomed the opportunity to explore frictionless cross-border payments and forward-looking regulatory approaches for tokenised money.