The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced on October 23, 2026, that Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and the Bank of Thailand (BOT) have joined the BLOOM initiative as policymaker members. The expansion brings three Southeast Asian central banks into a shared framework for cross-border settle...
"A future where frictionless cross-border payments can be made using multiple digital monies is now closer to a tangible reality than a far-fetched fantasy." — Aznan Abdul Aziz, Deputy Governor, Bank Negara Malaysia
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced on October 23, 2026, that Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and the Bank of Thailand (BOT) have joined the BLOOM initiative as policymaker members. The expansion brings three Southeast Asian central banks into a shared framework for cross-border settlement using tokenized deposits and regulated stablecoins.
BLOOM — Borderless, Liquid, Open, Online, Multi-currency — now counts 24 industry participants including JPMorgan, DBS, Standard Chartered, Circle, Coinbase, Visa, Mastercard, Ripple, Stripe, and the World Bank Group. Nine new private-sector members were added alongside the two central banks. The initiative does not create a shared currency or a unified settlement network; each jurisdiction retains its own regulatory authority while working toward common standards for digital money interoperability.
The announcement arrives as Southeast Asia's cross-border payment infrastructure faces mounting pressure. ASEAN cross-border QR payments reached 36.2 million transactions worth $716.4 million in 2025, but traditional correspondent banking corridors still charge 1–4% in fees and FX spreads, with settlement taking 3–5 days. An estimated $27 trillion sits locked in pre-funded nostro/vostro accounts globally to support these flows. BLOOM's premise is that tokenized deposits and regulated stablecoins can compress both cost and time.
MAS launched BLOOM on October 16, 2025, building on groundwork from Project Orchid, which ran more than 10 trials on purpose-bound digital Singapore dollar infrastructure beginning in 2021. BLOOM is a public-private initiative, not a product. It produces standards and common approaches — not a shared ledger, token, or settlement layer.
The initiative examines two forms of digital money: tokenized bank liabilities (deposits represented on a blockchain) and regulated stablecoins (tokens pegged to fiat currency under official oversight). The goal is to establish how these instruments can be accepted, exchanged, and settled between institutions across different networks and jurisdictions.
MAS Deputy Managing Director Leong Sing Chiong stated: "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."
The October 23 announcement added:
Policymaker members:
New industry participants (9):
This brings total industry membership to 24, up from 15 at launch. The existing member roster includes DBS, OCBC, UOB, JPMorgan, Standard Chartered, Circle, Coinbase, Anchorage Digital, StraitsX, Stripe, Partior, Ant International, Kasikorn Bank, Schroders, Temasek, and Xweave.
BOT Deputy Governor Daranee Saeju said the initiative would inform Thailand's regulatory approach to tokenized money, "while ensuring our oversight remains prudent, proportionate, and responsive to evolving risks."
BLOOM operates through three defined workstreams:
1. Cross-border acceptance and settlement. This workstream addresses how digital money issued in one jurisdiction can be accepted and settled in another. It examines the mechanics of clearing and settlement when the payer's bank uses a tokenized deposit and the payee's institution accepts a regulated stablecoin, or vice versa.
2. Digital money network interoperability. Different institutions and jurisdictions are building on different blockchain networks. This workstream develops standards for moving value between networks without requiring all participants to share a single platform.
3. Programmable transaction controls. Automated identity verification, sanctions screening, and compliance checks embedded at the transaction level. This workstream aims to ensure that cross-border digital money flows carry the same safeguards as traditional correspondent banking without the manual overhead.
The structure acknowledges a practical reality: no single blockchain, protocol, or token issuer will dominate cross-border settlement. Interoperability between competing rails matters more than choosing the right one.
The 24 industry members span five categories:
| Category | Members | |---|---| | Regional banks | DBS, OCBC, UOB, Maybank, Kasikorn Bank | | Global banks | JPMorgan, Standard Chartered | | Stablecoin issuers | Circle, Anchorage Digital, StraitsX | | Payment networks & fintechs | Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Ripple, Airwallex, Nium, Monee, ShopeePay, Ant International | | Settlement infrastructure | Partior, Xweave | | Asset managers & sovereigns | Schroders, Temasek | | Multilateral institution | World Bank Group |
The breadth of participation is notable. The same table includes both stablecoin-native firms (Circle, Coinbase) and their most direct competitors in cross-border settlement (Visa, Mastercard). It also pairs traditional interbank settlement networks (Partior, co-founded by JPMorgan and DBS) with newer payment fintechs (Airwallex, Nium). The inclusion of the World Bank Group signals an interest in applying these standards to developing-economy corridors where remittance costs remain highest.
Cross-border payments between ASEAN nations remain expensive and slow despite two decades of fintech activity. The structural constraints:
ASEAN's cross-border QR payments reached $716.4 million across 36.2 million transactions in 2025. Malaysia alone recorded 11.8 million cross-border QR transactions worth RM967 million in the first half of 2025, surpassing all of 2024. Indonesia's QRIS system saw 225% growth in cross-border usage. Volumes are growing, but they remain a fraction of total trade-related payment flows. The Asia-Pacific cross-border payments market totaled $12.8 trillion in 2024, according to industry estimates.
BLOOM's hypothesis: tokenized deposits and regulated stablecoins can compress settlement from days to seconds, reduce costs by eliminating intermediary banks, and free trapped nostro/vostro liquidity — if the standards for acceptance and interoperability are in place.
BLOOM does not compete with existing cross-border payment systems. It sits alongside them:
Partior — the multi-bank blockchain settlement network co-founded by JPMorgan, DBS, and Temasek — is already live for USD, EUR, and SGD settlement. Partior handles the plumbing; BLOOM sets the policy standards for what forms of digital money those pipes can carry.
Project Nexus — the BIS-backed initiative linking domestic fast payment systems — focuses on existing fiat rails. BLOOM focuses on tokenized and stablecoin rails.
Bilateral QR links — the 29 existing ASEAN payment linkages — handle retail P2P and merchant payments. BLOOM encompasses wholesale use cases including corporate treasury management, trade finance, and what it terms "agentic payments" — transactions initiated by software agents on behalf of institutions.
JPMorgan's Kinexys (formerly JPM Coin) — processes approximately $3 billion in daily settlement volume. It demonstrates institutional demand for tokenized deposit settlement. BLOOM aims to make these closed-loop systems interoperable with one another and with stablecoin networks.
Each BLOOM policymaker member brings a different regulatory posture:
Singapore: MAS completed its first live wholesale CBDC settlement trial in 2025, with DBS, OCBC, and UOB settling interbank overnight lending. Singapore's Payment Services Act provides a licensing framework for stablecoin issuers. StraitsX already operates MAS-licensed SGD and USD stablecoins.
Malaysia: BNM has not yet issued a stablecoin regulatory framework but is examining ringgit-denominated stablecoins. Deputy Governor Aznan Abdul Aziz indicated that Malaysia expects regulatory clarity by end of 2026.
Thailand: BOT has conducted limited pilots on wholesale tokenized settlement. Deputy Governor Daranee Saeju stated that BLOOM would inform Thailand's regulatory approach. The country does not currently license stablecoin issuers.
The regulatory asymmetry is significant. Singapore has licensing, live stablecoin operations, and completed CBDC trials. Malaysia is developing its framework. Thailand is still studying the question. BLOOM's workstreams will need to bridge these gaps before cross-border digital money flows become operational between the three countries.
Several elements remain absent one year into the initiative:
These gaps are typical for a standards-setting body in its first year. The question is whether common approaches can be finalized before participating institutions build incompatible proprietary systems — a pattern that has characterized previous cross-border payment standardization efforts.
BLOOM's expansion from a Singapore-led industry initiative to a three-central-bank framework marks a shift from experimental to pre-operational. The addition of BNM and BOT converts what was a unilateral standards exercise into a multilateral one, with the regulatory authority to eventually implement what it develops.
The initiative's value lies not in the technology — tokenized deposits and stablecoins already function — but in the coordination. Cross-border settlement requires agreement on acceptance, interoperability, and compliance across jurisdictions. Every previous attempt to standardize cross-border payments has struggled at this coordination layer, regardless of the underlying technology.
Whether BLOOM produces enforceable, adopted standards or becomes another in a long line of cross-border payment working groups depends on execution over the next 12–18 months. The participants are serious. The regulatory asymmetry is real. The $12.8 trillion market is waiting.