Malaysia and Thailand central banks join Singapore's BLOOM cross-border stablecoin initiative

Oct 23, 2026

Bank Negara Malaysia and the Bank of Thailand have joined the Monetary Authority of Singapore's BLOOM initiative as policymaker members on October 23, 2026. The cross-border project aims to enable financial institutions to settle payments using regulated stablecoins and tokenized bank deposits without requiring separate bilateral agreements. Major private network participants include Visa, Mastercard, and Ripple, alongside the World Bank Group. Malaysia is concurrently conducting ringgit stablecoin pilots, while Thailand opened consultations for baht-backed token regulations.

Monetary Authority of Singapore BLOOM announcements

▪Bank Negara Malaysia and the Bank of Thailand joined the Monetary Authority of Singapore's BLOOM cross-border payments initiative as policy institution members on October 23, 2026.
▪The Monetary Authority of Singapore's release for the BLOOM expansion on October 23, 2026 did not name a specific stablecoin, tokenized deposit product, payment corridor, or launch date.
▪The Monetary Authority of Singapore originally launched the BLOOM initiative in October 2025, expanding upon its Project Orchid digital Singapore dollar research program started in 2021.

BLOOM framework and scope

▪The BLOOM initiative's scope extends beyond cross-border payments to cover corporate treasury management, trade finance, and payments executed by artificial intelligence agents within preset limits.
▪BLOOM's cross-border work includes programmable transaction controls to execute identity verification, sanctions screening, and transaction limits during digital money transfers.
▪The BLOOM initiative establishes common frameworks to connect token networks and settle cross-border transactions in regulated stablecoins and tokenized deposits without separate bilateral counterpart agreements.

BLOOM institutional participants

▪Malaysian banking group Maybank, Sea's digital financial services business Monee, and digital wallet ShopeePay joined the roster of industry participants in Singapore's BLOOM initiative.
▪J.P. Morgan, Standard Chartered, DBS, Anchorage Digital, and Kasikornbank are among the founding or existing banking and crypto institutional participants in Singapore's BLOOM initiative.
▪Mastercard, Visa, Airwallex, Circle, Coinbase, and Stripe are participants in the Monetary Authority of Singapore's BLOOM cross-border digital money initiative.
▪The World Bank Group joined Singapore's BLOOM initiative under a category for multilateral development lenders to support global payment-system modernization and financial inclusion.

BLOOM pilot projects

▪Ripple joined Singapore's BLOOM initiative to test automated trade finance payments using its RLUSD stablecoin on the XRP Ledger in partnership with supply chain fintech firm Unloq.
▪Visa and Nium announced a BLOOM pilot in August to test cross-border settlement seven days a week, including weekends and public holidays, using U.S. dollar- and euro-backed stablecoins.

Bank Negara Malaysia stablecoin plans

▪Bank Negara Malaysia expects to issue further policy clarity regarding ringgit stablecoins and tokenized deposit platforms by the end of 2026.
▪Bank Negara Malaysia is pursuing three projects in 2026 to pilot ringgit-denominated stablecoins and tokenized deposits for domestic and cross-border wholesale payments.

Bank of Thailand regulatory approaches

▪Bank of Thailand Deputy Governor Daranee Saeju stated that joining the BLOOM initiative will help inform Thailand's forward-looking regulatory approaches for tokenized money.
▪The Bank of Thailand opened a public consultation on October 20, 2026 proposing regulatory principles for baht-backed stablecoin issuers and wallet providers regarding reserve backing and redemption safeguards.

Monetary Authority of Singapore stablecoin proposals

▪The Monetary Authority of Singapore proposed legislative changes on September 1, 2026 establishing regulatory recognition pathways for jointly issued and foreign-issued stablecoins.
▪The Monetary Authority of Singapore's proposed stablecoin regulatory changes include requirements for issuer stress testing, recovery planning, and orderly wind-down procedures.

Mastercard Stablecoin Security program

▪Mastercard selected Borderless.xyz and Keyrails as initial partners for the North American launch of its Stablecoin Security program ahead of global availability in 2027.
▪Mastercard unveiled a Stablecoin Security program on October 19, 2026 to assess fraud and sanctions risks in digital payments using blockchain analytics and payment intelligence.