Monetary Authority of Singapore extends BLOOM to Malaysia and Thailand central banks

On 23 October 2026 the Monetary Authority of Singapore announced that Bank Negara Malaysia and the Bank of Thailand had joined BLOOM as policymaker members. The move expands the platform from its original bilateral scope to three central banks and three jurisdictions with immediate effect.

The three central banks will work with industry participants to develop common approaches for the cross-border use of digital money. This includes how tokenised deposits and regulated stablecoins can be accepted, exchanged and settled across institutions, networks and jurisdictions. The initiative also deepens engagement on settlement infrastructure and frameworks that promote interoperability, while applying relevant international standards and respecting differences in local supervisory expectations.

The participant list has been expanded to include Airwallex, Mastercard, Maybank, Monee, Nium, Ripple, ShopeePay, Visa and the World Bank Group. Work will concentrate on three practical areas: how financial institutions accept different forms of digital money for cross-border transactions and how those transactions are contracted and settled; technical and operational approaches that allow systems to operate across networks and borders; and programmable controls such as identity verification, sanctions screening and transaction controls.

The stated aim is to reduce the need for financial institutions to establish separate bilateral arrangements with each counterparty or market. By developing shared implementation frameworks and aligning commercial and operating arrangements, the platform is intended to lower implementation costs and shorten time to market for compliant cross-border solutions. The involvement of the three central banks ensures that public policy and regulatory considerations are built into these approaches from the outset.

Collaboration among policymakers and industry is needed to address practical issues around acceptance, settlement and interoperability.

The announcement is deliberately limited in what it settles. It does not set holding limits for tokenised deposits or regulated stablecoins, specify fees, define mandate eligibility criteria for institutions or asset owners, or establish liquidity depth thresholds. No start dates for live operations, pilots or testing phases are given. Specific technical standards for interoperability remain unstated, as do timelines for the development of the frameworks themselves. Governance arrangements, decision-making processes, capital treatment and supervisory reporting obligations are also outside the scope of the release.

For central banks and public asset owners, the expansion integrates policy and regulatory perspectives into the design of cross-border digital money arrangements. Institutional participants gain a single platform on which to develop common approaches that reduce the need for separate bilateral agreements across Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. The broader industry participation, including payment networks and technology providers, brings additional operational expertise to the table.

Private banks and wealth managers active in the three markets may eventually benefit from lower implementation costs and faster routes to compliant arrangements once the frameworks are in place. The emphasis on programmable controls supports continued adherence to jurisdiction-specific supervisory expectations. Earlier work in 2025 had focused on payments, treasury and trade finance applications; the current expansion maintains that orientation without introducing new use cases.

Asset owners and institutional investors receive no new guidance on how these developments affect portfolio construction, risk allocation or liquidity management. The document establishes a coordinated policy and industry platform. It does not yet define the operational or regulatory terms that would determine whether, or how, institutions participate.