Singapore’s Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced on October 23, 2026, that Bank Negara Malaysia and the Bank of Thailand have joined the BLOOM initiative as policymaker members, expanding cross-border digital money settlement work across three Southeast Asian economies.
BLOOM — Borderless, Liquid, Open, Online, Multi-currency — brings regulators, banks and payment companies together to develop settlement arrangements for digital money. The collaboration will focus on three areas: cross-border acceptance and settlement, interoperability between digital money networks, and programmable transaction controls such as identity verification, sanctions screening and payment restrictions.
No shared stablecoin license, common currency or operational settlement network was announced. The October 23 agreement concerns implementation frameworks and commercial arrangements between participating institutions, with each central bank retaining responsibility for its own supervisory and regulatory decisions.
MAS Deputy Managing Director Leong Sing Chiong said cooperation was necessary because financial markets will increasingly use multiple forms of digital money. Bank Negara Malaysia Deputy Governor Aznan bin Abdul Aziz described frictionless payments using different digital currencies as an increasingly realistic prospect, while Bank of Thailand Deputy Governor Daranee Saeju said BLOOM would inform Thailand’s regulatory approach to tokenized money, particularly wholesale settlement and international payments.
MAS added Ripple, Airwallex, Mastercard, Maybank, Monee, Nium, ShopeePay, Visa and the World Bank Group to BLOOM’s participant list. Circle, Coinbase, J.P. Morgan, DBS, Anchorage Digital and Standard Chartered were among the existing members. Ripple’s participation builds on its RLUSD trade finance pilot with Unloq, which examined settlement using the XRP Ledger, while Circle’s involvement gives the USDC issuer a place in interoperability discussions. However, neither RLUSD nor USDC received new regional authorization or mandatory settlement status under the expanded arrangement.
Malaysia has been examining ringgit-denominated stablecoins through its Digital Asset Innovation Hub, with Bank Negara Malaysia announcing controlled initiatives in February. Thailand opened a public consultation on baht-backed stablecoins on October 20, proposing rules for issuers and wallet providers covering reserve backing, redemption safeguards and transaction monitoring. Singapore has been conducting its own stablecoin regulatory consultations, including proposals covering foreign issuers and interest treatment.
The initiative already includes a Visa and Nium settlement pilot testing cross-border payments using regulated U.S. dollar- and euro-backed stablecoins outside conventional banking hours. The World Bank Group is joining as a multilateral development institution, contributing experience in payment system modernization and financial inclusion.
