Malaysia and Thailand Join Singapore's 'BLOOM' to Expand International Payments with Stablecoins

Three central banks in Southeast Asia are collaborating to build a common framework for the interoperability of digital money and payments.

On Friday, October 23, 2026, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced that Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and the Bank of Thailand (BOT) have joined BLOOM, a group of policymakers promoting cross-border digital money payments.

The three institutions will work with industry stakeholders to develop a common approach for utilizing regulated stablecoins and tokenized deposits across borders. BLOOM (Borderless, Liquid, Open, Online, Multi-currency) is a public-private initiative launched in October 2025, where policymakers, financial institutions, payment networks, and technology providers collaborate to promote the use of digital money in cross-border financial activities. With this participation, MAS, BNM, and BOT will collaborate with industry stakeholders in their respective jurisdictions to develop a common approach for accepting, exchanging, and settling digital money across different institutions, networks, and jurisdictions.

On the industry side, nine organizations, including Mastercard, VISA, Ripple, Maybank, and the World Bank Group, have newly joined, expanding the number of participating companies and organizations to 24. Existing members include Circle, Coinbase, DBS, JPMorgan, and Standard Chartered Bank.

New participant Maybank is leading one of three payment trials involving the Malaysian Ringgit (the legal tender of Malaysia) backed stablecoin and tokenized deposits promoted by BNM. Meanwhile, Kasikornbank of Thailand had already joined BLOOM ahead of BOT, and both countries' financial institutions have been making progress in their initiatives.

Verifying Integration of Different Payment Systems and Reducing Implementation Burdens

BLOOM focuses on three areas that support the use of cross-border digital money.

First, in "Acceptance and Settlement Across Jurisdictions," financial institutions will verify how to contract with trading partners in different countries and accept and settle digital money. Next, in "Interoperability Between Digital Money Mechanisms," they will explore technical and operational methods to connect different networks and infrastructures. Furthermore, in "Programmable Controls," they will consider necessary safety measures for cross-border payments through identity verification, screening for sanctioned individuals, and transaction limits.

MAS aims to reduce the burden on financial institutions to establish individual arrangements for each trading partner and market through these initiatives, leading to reduced implementation costs and shorter time to market. In fact, BLOOM is currently testing trade settlements using the USD-pegged stablecoin RLUSD in collaboration with Ripple and Unloq.

Aznan bin Abdul Aziz, Deputy Governor of BNM, noted that frictionless cross-border payments using multiple digital currencies are becoming a reality. Meanwhile, Daranee Saeju, Deputy Governor of BOT, indicated that they will consider regulations regarding tokenized currencies with an eye on cross-border payments and wholesale settlements between financial institutions.

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