Malaysia and Thailand Central Banks Join Singapore's BLOOM Initiative

Bank Negara Malaysia and the Bank of Thailand have become policymaker members of Singapore's BLOOM initiative, bringing two more central banks into work on common approaches for cross-border digital-money transactions.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced the additions Oct. 23. MAS, Bank Negara Malaysia and the Bank of Thailand will work with industry participants in their respective jurisdictions on ways to accept, exchange and settle different forms of digital money across institutions, networks and national borders.

BLOOM stands for Borderless, Liquid, Open, Online, Multi-currency. Its work covers cross-jurisdictional acceptance and settlement, interoperability among digital-money arrangements, and programmable controls. Those controls include identity verification, sanctions screening and transaction controls. The initiative includes tokenized deposits and regulated stablecoins, as well as settlement across payment networks.

The expansion also adds Airwallex, Mastercard, Maybank, Monee, Nium, Ripple, ShopeePay, Visa and the World Bank Group. The central banks and industry participants will work within their own jurisdictions on approaches that can function across institutions and markets.

BLOOM will develop implementation frameworks and align commercial and operating arrangements. A shared approach is intended to reduce the separate setups financial institutions need for different counterparties or markets, lowering implementation costs and shortening time to market. Central bank participation brings policy and regulatory considerations into the work alongside its commercial and operating details.

MAS has previously advanced BLOOM around settlement arrangements involving tokenized bank deposits and regulated stablecoins for domestic and cross-border applications. The latest additions expand policymaker participation to Malaysia and Thailand, while the added firms broaden the initiative's industry roster. The participants' work will focus on common approaches for digital money to be accepted, exchanged and settled across institutions and networks.