Singapore’s Monetary Authority of Singapore has added Bank Negara Malaysia and the Bank of Thailand as policymaker members of its BLOOM initiative, bringing three Southeast Asian monetary authorities into a project testing how regulated stablecoins and tokenized bank deposits could settle cross-border payments.
The expansion places Malaysia and Thailand alongside Singapore in an early-stage effort to address a practical problem for regional commerce: payments crossing borders often move through multiple correspondent banks, operate within different regulatory systems and can take longer than domestic transfers. BLOOM will test whether digital forms of regulated money can move between participating institutions and networks while retaining compliance controls required for international payments.
BLOOM, which stands for Borderless, Liquid, Open, Online, Multi-currency, began in October last year. MAS convened banks, payment companies and technology firms to explore transactions involving tokenized bank deposits and regulated stablecoins—digital tokens designed to maintain a stable value through backing arrangements and regulatory oversight.
MAS said the initiative’s participants include Ripple, Visa, Mastercard, the World Bank Group, Circle, Coinbase, JPMorgan, Standard Chartered and Stripe. The group combines central banks and commercial institutions that operate in different parts of the payment chain, from issuing money and providing bank accounts to processing card payments and building blockchain infrastructure.
Regional authorities focus on rules as well as speed
The entry of Bank Negara Malaysia and the Bank of Thailand gives BLOOM a more distinctly regional policy dimension. Cross-border settlement systems need participating jurisdictions to agree on how identities are verified, sanctions are screened and transactions are monitored before banks can use them for meaningful payment flows.
MAS said BLOOM’s workstreams include the treatment of different forms of digital money by banks during cross-border transfers, interoperability between separate digital networks, and safeguards covering identity checks, sanctions screening and transaction controls.
Those issues can determine whether a digital settlement system is usable beyond a limited pilot. A token may move rapidly on a ledger, but banks and payment providers still need to establish which institution is responsible for compliance, when a transfer becomes final and how a payment can be handled if it triggers an anti-money-laundering alert.
Leong Sing Chiong, deputy managing director at MAS, said multiple forms of digital money are likely to operate across institutions and markets. That approach suggests the initiative is not designed around a single public or private payment token. Instead, it is examining how tokenized deposits, stablecoins and potentially other regulated digital settlement assets could interact.
Bank Negara Malaysia Deputy Governor Aznan bin Abdul Aziz and Bank of Thailand Deputy Governor Daranee Saeju also issued statements linked to cross-border digital money and the regulatory assessment of tokenized money for cross-border payments and wholesale settlement, according to MAS.
Tokenized deposits sit alongside regulated stablecoins
BLOOM’s scope covers two related but distinct models. A tokenized bank deposit is a digital representation of a deposit claim against a bank. The customer’s money remains a liability of that bank, but the claim can be represented and transferred through a digital ledger.
A regulated stablecoin is generally issued by a separate entity and designed to hold a fixed value against a currency or other reference asset. Its usefulness in payments depends heavily on the quality of its reserves, the legal rights of holders, redemption arrangements and the rules governing its issuer.
Testing both models allows participants to examine where each could fit in cross-border settlement. Banks may prefer tokenized deposits for transfers within existing banking relationships, while stablecoins could be useful for connecting payment systems that do not share the same account infrastructure. The outcome will depend on legal treatment, interoperability and whether the systems can meet regulatory standards across every relevant jurisdiction.
MAS has separately explored wholesale central bank digital currency, or wholesale CBDC, in prior trials. Unlike a retail CBDC intended for public use, wholesale CBDC is designed for transactions between financial institutions. The separate work gives Singapore experience with several forms of digital money, though BLOOM is specifically focused on settlement involving tokenized commercial-bank money and regulated stablecoins.
Ripple is testing trade-payment automation
Ripple disclosed in March that it would participate in BLOOM through a trial involving RLUSD, its stablecoin, on the XRP Ledger. The company said it is working with supply-chain fintech Unloq to test trade payments through Unloq’s SC+ platform.
The proposed workflow would automate payment releases after predefined conditions are met. In a trade transaction, those conditions could be tied to events such as documentation approval or the completion of a contractual milestone. Automating the release mechanism could reduce manual reconciliation between trading partners, banks and logistics providers, although the trial remains a test rather than a deployed regional payment system.
The Ripple-Unloq experiment also illustrates why cross-border settlement projects are increasingly assessing payment logic alongside the transfer of funds. Faster movement of money offers limited benefit if trade documents, compliance checks and delivery conditions remain disconnected from the payment process.
Interoperability remains the central operational test
BLOOM’s next challenge will be connecting systems that may use different technical standards, commercial arrangements and legal structures. A bank in one country may issue tokenized deposits on one network, while a payment provider or stablecoin issuer operates on another. Moving value between them requires more than a shared ledger; it requires agreed rules for exchange, settlement finality, access and oversight.
The involvement of three regional central banks could help frame those rules before private-sector payment networks develop incompatible approaches. It also gives Malaysian and Thai institutions a place in shaping how regional cross-border digital settlement could work, rather than simply connecting to a system designed elsewhere.
MAS has not indicated that BLOOM will replace existing cross-border banking rails or set a timetable for a production launch. Its stated focus remains on testing transaction settlement, network connectivity and safeguards. That measured design reflects the barriers facing digital-money payments: technology can shorten processing steps, but regulated financial institutions must first establish common controls for moving value across borders.
Learn how regulated stablecoins reshape Asian payments in 2026 — read this in-depth stablecoin analysis next.
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