The central banks of Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand are expanding their work on blockchain-based cross-border payments through Singapore’s BLOOM initiative, which brings together major financial companies including Ripple, Visa, Mastercard and JPMorgan.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced that Bank Negara Malaysia and the Bank of Thailand have joined the project as policymaker members. The initiative aims to explore how stablecoins and tokenized bank deposits can make international payments faster, easier and more efficient.
Other participants include Circle, Coinbase, Standard Chartered, Stripe and the World Bank Group, bringing together traditional banks, payment providers and cryptocurrency companies.
BLOOM, which stands for Borderless, Liquid, Open, Online and Multi-currency, was launched in October 2025. The project focuses on testing digital payment systems that allow different forms of money to move between financial institutions and blockchain networks.
One of its main goals is to improve cross-border payments, which can take longer and involve higher costs when processed through traditional banking systems.
Ripple joined the initiative earlier in 2026 and announced plans to test international trade payments using its RLUSD stablecoin on the XRP Ledger.
The trial, conducted with financial technology company Unloq, uses the SC+ platform to automatically release payments when certain conditions are met. This could help businesses complete international transactions with fewer manual steps and delays.
MAS said the expanded project will also examine how banks can use different types of digital money across payment networks while maintaining security and meeting regulatory requirements.
These include identity checks, sanctions screening and transaction monitoring to help ensure that blockchain-based payments follow financial regulations.
MAS Deputy Managing Director Leong Sing Chiong said the future financial system will likely involve several forms of digital money operating across different banks, institutions and markets.
Bank Negara Malaysia Deputy Governor Aznan bin Abdul Aziz also noted that using different forms of digital money for international payments is becoming a more realistic option.
Meanwhile, Bank of Thailand Deputy Governor Daranee Saeju said joining BLOOM will help the country study how tokenized money could be regulated and used for cross-border payments and large financial transactions.
The expansion comes as banks, payment companies and regulators increasingly explore stablecoins and blockchain technology as alternatives to traditional international payment systems.
By bringing together three Southeast Asian central banks and major global financial companies, BLOOM could help develop more connected payment networks and support the wider use of regulated digital money.
The project also highlights Southeast Asia’s growing interest in using blockchain technology to improve international payments while maintaining financial oversight and security.
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