TLDR

• Malaysia and Thailand have joined Singapore's BLOOM initiative as policymaker members.
• The initiative focuses on cross-border payments using stablecoins and tokenized bank deposits.
• Ripple, Visa, Mastercard, and the World Bank Group are among the participating organizations.
• Ripple and Unloq plan to test automated trade payments using RLUSD on the XRP Ledger.
• Central banks will examine payment settlement, network compatibility, identity checks, and regulatory controls.

Singapore has expanded its BLOOM payments initiative as Malaysia Thailand join efforts to test cross-border transfers. The work covers regulated stablecoins and tokenized bank deposits. Cross-border payments have traditionally run through chains of correspondent banks, with each additional intermediary adding time and cost, which helps explain why regulators and financial firms are testing shared digital settlement models.

Singapore Adds Two Central Banks to BLOOM

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the city-state's central bank and financial regulator, confirmed the membership of Bank Negara Malaysia and the Bank of Thailand on Friday. Both joined as policymaker members rather than commercial payment providers, giving the initiative direct regulatory participation from three Southeast Asian jurisdictions.

BLOOM stands for Borderless, Liquid, Open, Online, Multi-currency. Singapore started the project in October 2025 to bring regulators, banks, and technology firms together around digital money settlement. Direct central bank involvement is significant for settlement work of this kind, because cross-border transfers ultimately depend on rules set separately in each jurisdiction.

Ripple and Payment Networks Join the Work

Current participants include Ripple, Visa, Mastercard, Airwallex, Maybank, and the World Bank Group. Circle, Coinbase, JPMorgan, Standard Chartered, and Stripe were already involved in the initiative.

Ripple announced a trial with trade finance company Unloq in March. The partners plan to use RLUSD, Ripple's US dollar-backed stablecoin, on the XRP Ledger, releasing payments when shipment conditions are met. The design addresses a long-standing friction in trade finance, where payments between importers, exporters, and banks have typically depended on manual document checks. Separately, Cross River Bank is adding Ripple's RLUSD to its payment system.

The World Bank Group brings experience in international payment systems and financial inclusion. BLOOM participants are examining business payments, corporate cash management, and trade finance.

Banks Examine Settlement and Safety Checks

The central banks will examine how institutions accept and exchange different digital currencies across countries. They will also study ways for payment systems to communicate without requiring separate arrangements in every market, an interoperability question that has shaped most digital money pilots to date.

Tokenized deposits form another part of the work. These tokens represent bank deposits rather than stablecoins issued by private companies. In a separate development, JPMorgan made its JPM Coin deposit token available on Ethereum this week for approved institutional clients.

BLOOM will examine identity checks, sanctions screening, and transaction limits. MAS said common operating arrangements could reduce implementation costs while allowing regulators to apply their own national requirements.

Malaysia and Thailand Outline Their Priorities

Bank Negara Malaysia Deputy Governor Aznan bin Abdul Aziz said payments using different forms of digital money were becoming more practical, and he welcomed cooperation between central banks and companies.

Rules remain a separate issue for stablecoin providers. This week, the US banking regulator outlined waiver requirements for existing stablecoin issuers, showing how oversight differs between markets.

Bank of Thailand Deputy Governor Daranee Saeju said Singapore's initiative would support its work on rules for tokenized money. With the memberships confirmed, the next steps set out in the announcement are the central banks' examinations of settlement and controls, alongside industry trials already planned, such as the Ripple-Unloq test. No further jurisdictions were named in the announcement, so any expansion of the policymaker group would come through future updates.