Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and the Bank of Thailand (BOT) have joined the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) BLOOM initiative as policymaker members.
The three central banks will work with industry players to develop common approaches for accepting, exchanging and settling digital money across borders.
Launched in October 2025, BLOOM (Borderless, Liquid, Open, Online, Multi-currency) brings together policymakers, financial institutions, payment networks and technology providers.
It supports settlement involving tokenised bank liabilities and regulated stablecoins.
Visa, Mastercard and Ripple among new participants
MAS also announced that Airwallex, Mastercard, Maybank, Monee, Nium, Ripple, ShopeePay, Visa and the World Bank Group have joined the initiative.
Participants are developing digital money applications across payments, treasury and trade finance.
The World Bank Group will contribute its experience in payment systems modernisation, cross-border payments and financial inclusion.
Three areas of cooperation
BLOOM will focus on three areas: cross-border acceptance and settlement, interoperability between digital money systems, and programmable controls. These controls include identity verification and sanctions screening.
MAS said common implementation frameworks would reduce the need for separate arrangements with counterparties or markets. This would lower implementation costs and shorten time to market.
Leong Sing Chiong, Deputy Managing Director (Markets and Development), MAS, said,
“To fully harness the benefits of using digital money, collaboration among policymakers and industry participants will be needed to address practical issues around acceptance, settlement and interoperability.”
Aznan bin Abdul Aziz, Deputy Governor, BNM, said,
“A future where frictionless cross-border payments can be made using multiple digital monies is now closer to a tangible reality than a far-fetched fantasy. BNM looks forward to exploring such a future through the BLOOM initiative with all participating central banks and industry partners.”
BLOOM builds on Project Orchid, an earlier MAS initiative that explored a digital Singapore dollar and its supporting infrastructure.
Featured image credit: Edited by Fintech News Malaysia, based on image by mahade007 via Magnific
This article first appeared on Fintech News Singapore
