Proposal · Applies to Banks, Stablecoin issuers, Payment providers
On 23 October 2026 MAS announced that Bank Negara Malaysia and the Bank of Thailand have joined BLOOM, its initiative on settlement in tokenised bank deposits and regulated stablecoins, as policymaker members. The three central banks will work with industry members on acceptance and settlement across jurisdictions, interoperability across digital money arrangements, and programmable controls such as identity verification and sanctions screening. Nine participants joined, among them Mastercard, Visa, Maybank, Ripple and the World Bank Group. The release sets no timeline.
Why it matters: BLOOM is becoming the regional route for stablecoin and tokenised deposit settlement between Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, even though no recognition arrangement exists yet. R.M.
For Ethereum: BLOOM's cross-border settlement standards would reach ERC-20 stablecoins on Ethereum, since Circle and StraitsX are members and its scope covers regulated stablecoins.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said in a media release on 23 October 2026 that Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and the Bank of Thailand (BOT) have joined BLOOM as policymaker members (para 1). MAS launched BLOOM in October 2025 to support settlement in tokenised bank liabilities and regulated stablecoins.
BLOOM will consider how international standards and each jurisdiction’s supervisory expectations apply to digital money, “while allowing for differences in local requirements” (para 3).
New participants are Airwallex, Mastercard, Maybank, Monee, Nium, Ripple, ShopeePay, Visa and the World Bank Group (para 4). Annex A lists 24 industry members, the three policymaker members and the World Bank Group as a multilateral development bank. Existing members include Circle, Coinbase, DBS, J.P. Morgan, OCBC, Partior, StraitsX and UOB.
Participants will work on acceptance and settlement across jurisdictions, interoperability “across networks, infrastructures and borders”, and programmable controls such as identity verification, sanctions screening and transaction controls (para 5).
Common implementation frameworks are meant to reduce the need for separate arrangements with each counterparty or market (para 6).
The release names no network or ledger and gives no dates or next steps.
Implications
BLOOM is now a three-jurisdiction forum. MAS says shared frameworks would mean “lowering implementation cost and improving time to market” for institutions that would otherwise set up arrangements counterparty by counterparty (para 6). BOT Deputy Governor Daranee Saeju said the work will inform BOT’s regulatory approach to tokenised money for cross-border payments and wholesale settlement (para 9). BNM Deputy Governor Aznan bin Abdul Aziz described cross-border payments “using multiple digital monies” as becoming realistic (para 8).
None of the three central banks has committed to recognise the others’ stablecoins or tokenised deposits. Para 3 keeps local requirements in place, and the release creates no licence, rule or passporting route.
For banks and payment firms in Singapore, BLOOM is becoming the regional route for settling payments in stablecoins and tokenised deposits with Malaysia and Thailand. Two central banks joined at once, along with Mastercard, Visa and Maybank (paras 1, 4), so firms building cross-border settlement in digital money now have one forum covering all three markets.
For Ethereum
The release names no chain. Circle, an existing member, says USDC is natively supported on 38 networks, Ethereum among them as an ERC-20 token. Regulated stablecoins in BLOOM include ERC-20 tokens on Ethereum, so the cross-border settlement standards BLOOM develops would apply to them. Circle and StraitsX are members, and BLOOM’s scope covers regulated stablecoins (para 2). This rests on inference: no MAS document says which chains BLOOM settles on, and a BLOOM trial or technical paper naming the networks used would confirm it.
Elsewhere in Asia
The State of Play on settlement projects compares the three markets. The Bank of Thailand is also a founding member of Project mBridge with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, a multi-CBDC platform for cross-border payments that reached minimum viable product stage in June 2024 (HKMA). mBridge settles in CBDCs, while BLOOM covers tokenised bank deposits and regulated stablecoins. The Reserve Bank of India’s 2026-27 agenda includes “exploring a bilateral/multilateral cross-border CBDC pilot” (annual report, para VI.67; Regulatory Wire). MAS Managing Director Chia Der Jiun described BLOOM’s domestic and cross-border scope in a speech on 9 October 2026.
What to watch
The first BLOOM trial between Singapore and Malaysia or Thailand, further central banks joining, and MAS’s response to its stablecoin consultation, which closed on 16 October 2026.