Bank Negara Malaysia and the Bank of Thailand have joined Singapore’s BLOOM initiative as policymaker members, expanding a project focused on cross-border settlement using regulated stablecoins and tokenized bank deposits. The announcement on Oct. 23 makes the three regulators partners with banks, payment networks and technology companies working on shared approaches for accepting, exchanging and settling different forms of digital money across institutions and jurisdictions.
BLOOM stands for Borderless, Liquid, Open, Online, Multi-currency. Singapore launched the public-private initiative in October 2025 after Project Orchid, which explored potential uses for a digital Singapore dollar and related infrastructure. The project covers domestic and cross-border payments, corporate treasury management, trade finance and payments carried out by artificial-intelligence agents within predefined limits and safeguards.
The participants are examining three practical issues: how digital money is accepted and settled across borders, how separate digital-money networks can interoperate, and how programmable controls can support identity verification, sanctions screening and transaction limits. The stated goal is to reduce the need for financial institutions to create separate commercial, technical and operating arrangements with every counterparty or market, which could lower implementation costs and shorten the time required to bring services to market.
The policymaker expansion accompanies a broader industry group that includes Airwallex, Mastercard, Maybank, Monee, Nium, Ripple, ShopeePay, Visa and the World Bank Group, alongside existing members such as Circle, Coinbase, DBS, J. Morgan, OCBC, Standard Chartered, Stripe and UOB. The World Bank Group’s participation brings a multilateral-development perspective to payment-system modernization and cross-border financial activity.
Malaysia is also conducting separate domestic policy and testing work. Bank Negara Malaysia said in February that three controlled initiatives would test ringgit stablecoins and tokenized deposits for wholesale payments within Malaysia and across borders, including settlement of tokenized assets. The central bank said the work would help inform policy and that it intended to provide greater clarity on ringgit stablecoins and tokenized deposits by the end of 2026.
It does not identify a common token, name a launch corridor or provide a date when businesses can access a shared regional network.