The central banks of Malaysia and Thailand have joined Singapore’s BLOOM initiative that seeks to advance the use of digital money in cross-border financial activity.
In a statement, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced that Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and the Bank of Thailand (BOT) will participate in the Borderless, Liquid, Open, Online, Multi-currency (BLOOM) initiative as policymaker members.
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Together, the three authorities will work with industry players in their respective jurisdictions to develop “common approaches” for the cross-border use of digital money, the statement added.
The BLOOM initiative operates as a public-private forum connecting central banks, commercial lenders, payment networks, and technology providers.
The group focuses on the cross-border use of tokenised deposits and regulated stablecoins, addressing how disparate forms of digital money can be accepted, exchanged, and settled across multiple jurisdictions and institutional networks.
The framework aims to apply international regulatory standards while accommodating jurisdiction-specific supervisory requirements.
Industry and institutional participation in BLOOM have widened to include Airwallex, Mastercard, Maybank, Monee, Nium, Ripple, ShopeePay, Visa, and the World Bank Group.
Work under the initiative centres on three operational areas.
The first area covers cross-border acceptance and settlement, focusing on counterparty contracting terms and final settlement mechanisms between institutions in different jurisdictions.
The second area addresses technical interoperability, establishing the protocols required for diverse digital asset networks and settlement infrastructures to communicate. The third area develops programmable controls, embedding automated regulatory compliance measures such as identity verification, sanctions screening, and transaction rules directly into digital payment flows.
By establishing standardised operating and commercial arrangements, the project aims to remove the requirement for institutions to build bilateral links with each counterparty or foreign market.
This structure is intended to decrease integration costs and shorten deployment schedules for market participants, while preserving regulatory oversight.
MAS Markets and Development deputy managing director Leong Sing Chiong said: “The future of finance will involve multiple forms of digital money operating across different institutions and markets. 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.
“We welcome the contributions from Bank Negara Malaysia and Bank of Thailand as we work together to support more seamless cross-border financial transactions.”
