What happened
- Specific facts/numbers: On 23 October 2026, the Monetary Authority of Singapore said Bank Negara Malaysia and the Bank of Thailand joined BLOOM as policymaker members; MAS launched BLOOM in October 2025 and describes it as covering settlement assets such as tokenised commercial bank money and stablecoins that meet regulatory expectations.
- Institutions involved: The Monetary Authority of Singapore, Bank Negara Malaysia and the Bank of Thailand are the public-sector participants named in the announcement, alongside industry members that MAS says include financial institutions, payment networks and technology providers.
- Regulatory/technical context: MAS says BLOOM is focused on common approaches for accepting, exchanging and settling digital money across institutions, networks and borders, with work spanning cross-jurisdiction settlement, interoperability among different systems and programmable controls such as identity checks, sanctions screening and transaction limits.
- What to watch next: Watch for any formal pilots, technical standards or market launches under BLOOM; the accessible reports reviewed did not identify a specific launch date, and no next milestone was identified beyond continued work with industry participants.
Why it matters
The move brings three Southeast Asian central banks into one framework for shaping how regulated digital money could be settled across borders, which could lower integration friction for banks and payment networks operating across the region.
HKMA Relevance
Direct: This is a concrete cross-border digital money and payments initiative led by central banks, squarely within the HKMA’s remit over payments, settlement and related regulatory design.
Story details
Sources
- Primary source: https://www.mas.gov.sg/schemes-and-initiatives/BLOOM
- Secondary source: https://www.uanworld.com/story/asean-bloom-cross-border-digital-money-2026