Bank Negara Malaysia and the Bank of Thailand have joined the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s BLOOM initiative as policymaker members, expanding regional efforts to advance cross-border payments through digital assets.
BLOOM Initiative Expands Regional Collaboration
The BLOOM initiative, which stands for Borderless, Liquid, Open, Online, Multi-currency, brings together public and private sector partners to improve the efficiency of cross-border transactions. By connecting major central banks in Southeast Asia, the platform seeks to accelerate innovation in regional payment systems.
Launched by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in October 2025, BLOOM aims to reduce costs and speed up the delivery of financial services by eliminating the need for each institution to create separate arrangements for every counterpart or market.
BLOOM is designed to support the use of stablecoins and tokenized deposits, empowering financial institutions to streamline payments, corporate cash management, trade finance, and other functions. AI agents are also being tested to execute payments within assigned parameters.
Major Participants and Project Scope
The initiative involves industry leaders such as Airwallex, Mastercard, Ripple, Visa, and the World Bank Group. Their participation reflects growing confidence in blockchain-driven solutions and tokenized assets for enhancing international payment rails.
MAS developed BLOOM by building on Project Orchid, an earlier effort initiated in 2021 to explore potential applications for a digital Singapore dollar. The current focus is on advancing both the technical and policy framework required to support next-generation payments infrastructure.
Participants in BLOOM are working to cut costs and accelerate financial service deployment by streamlining cross-border arrangements, leveraging stablecoins and tokenized deposits for seamless payments, and testing new methods such as AI-powered transactions under strict guidelines.
Malaysia and Thailand Deepen Digital Payment Pilots
Bank Negara Malaysia previously outlined three pilot schemes in February, set to test the ringgit stablecoin and tokenized deposits for both domestic and international wholesale payments in 2026. Officials aim to evaluate the potential of digital money to simplify settlement processes and boost efficiency in the financial sector.
The Bank of Thailand’s participation signals the nation’s commitment to exploring innovative solutions for borderless payments, aligning with the broader move among Southeast Asian central banks to adopt digital assets and distributed ledger technology.
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