The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and the Bank of Thailand (BOT) have joined its BLOOM initiative as policymaker members.
In a statement on Friday, the MAS said the three central banks will work with industry players to develop common approaches to cross-border use of digital money. The cooperation includes acceptance of different digital money, exchanged and settled across institutions, networks, and jurisdictions.
Borderless, Liquid, Open, Online and Multi-currency (BLOOM) is a public-private initiative that brings together policymakers, financial institutions, payment networks, and technology providers.
MAS said greater coordination will be needed as financial institutions and jurisdictions develop different digital money uses, including tokenised deposits and regulated stablecoins.
The initiative aims to deepen engagement between policymakers and industry on settlement infrastructure and on frameworks that promote interoperability. It will consider how international standards and jurisdiction-specific supervisory expectations can apply to cross-border transactions, while allowing for differences in local requirements.
BLOOM’s participation has also expanded to include Airwallex, Mastercard, Maybank, Monee, Nium, Ripple, ShopeePay, Visa, and the World Bank Group.
MAS said participants are advancing digital money applications in payments, treasury and trade finance, including tokenised deposits, regulated stablecoins and settlement across payment networks.
The World Bank Group’s participation as a multilateral development bank will bring its experience in payment systems modernization, cross-border payments, and financial inclusion, including the perspectives of developing economies.
Participants will focus on three areas. The first is acceptance and settlement across jurisdictions, including how financial institutions accept different forms of digital money, how counterparties contract with one another, and how transactions settle across markets.
The second is interoperability, pushing different digital money arrangements to operate across networks, infrastructure, and borders.
The third is programmable controls, such as identity verification, sanctions screening, and transaction limits.
MAS said BLOOM would reduce the need for financial institutions to set up separate arrangements with each counterparty or market, which would lower implementation costs and speed time to market.
Leong Sing Chiong, deputy managing director for markets and development at MAS, said the future of finance will involve multiple forms of digital money. Collaboration between policymakers and industry will be needed to address acceptance, settlement, and interoperability.
Aznan bin Abdul Aziz, deputy governor of BNM, said a future in which cross-border payments can be made using multiple forms of digital money is closer to reality than it was, and that BNM looks forward to exploring it through BLOOM with the participating central banks and industry partners.
Daranee Saeju, deputy governor for payment systems stability and financial services supervision at BOT, said the bank welcomes the chance to help inform forward-looking regulatory approaches for tokenised money, particularly in cross-border payments and wholesale settlement, while keeping oversight prudent and proportionate.
Maybank Singapore, one of the new participants, said in August that it aims to help shape common standards and infrastructure for digital finance in Singapore.
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