BLOOM Initiative Expands as Malaysia and Thailand Central Banks Join Singapore Project

The Monetary Authority of Singapore announced on 23 October 2026 that Bank Negara Malaysia and the Bank of Thailand have joined the BLOOM initiative as policymaker members. The move expands the public-private project to develop common approaches for cross-border acceptance, exchange and settlement of tokenized deposits and regulated stablecoins across G10 and Asian currencies.

BLOOM Initiative Adds Policymaker Members and Industry Partners

MAS launched BLOOM in October 2025, building on Project Orchid. The three central banks will now coordinate with participants on interoperability, reduced bilateral arrangements and lower costs while embedding regulatory requirements. New participants announced on the same day include Airwallex, Mastercard, Maybank, Monee, Nium, Ripple, ShopeePay, Visa and the World Bank Group.

Existing participants number around 16 and cover Anchorage Digital, Ant International, Circle, Coinbase, DBS, J.P. Morgan, Kasikornbank, OCBC, Partior, Schroders, Standard Chartered, StraitsX, Stripe, Temasek, UOB and Xweave. The central banks stated that the partnership will address acceptance and settlement across jurisdictions, interoperability between digital money arrangements and programmable controls such as identity verification and sanctions screening. Agentic and AI-driven payments are also under exploration.

MAS Deputy Managing Director Leong Sing Chiong noted the need for collaboration to achieve seamless cross-border transactions. BNM Deputy Governor Aznan bin Abdul Aziz said frictionless multi-digital-money payments are becoming tangible. BOT Deputy Governor Daranee Saeju emphasised that the work will inform regulatory approaches for tokenized money while preserving prudent oversight.

Scope Covers Wholesale Use Cases Without Immediate Pilot Dates

The initiative focuses on wholesale applications in payments, corporate treasury and trade finance. Settlement assets must meet regulatory expectations across participating jurisdictions. No specific cross-border pilot dates, currency pairs or live implementations were announced with the expansion.

Workstreams target frameworks for implementation and alignment of commercial and operating arrangements. Entities interested in further collaboration or trials may submit expressions of interest through MAS channels. The expansion establishes coordination structures rather than operational services at this stage.

Context of Regional Digital Money Coordination

BLOOM operates alongside other regional efforts to reduce settlement friction in digital money. The addition of two additional central banks widens the geographic scope and incorporates perspectives from both ASEAN and developing economies via the World Bank Group. Participants will now develop shared standards for programmable controls and interoperability testing.

Official sources confirm the initiative remains focused on regulated instruments and does not extend to retail use cases at present. Continued reporting will track any subsequent framework publications or trial announcements from the expanded group.