The central banks Thailand and Malaysia are backing a Monetary Authority of Singapore-led public-private sector initiative to advance cross-border settlement in digital money.
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Launched last year, BLOOM (Borderless, Liquid, Open, Online, Multi-currency), is an initiative bringing together policymakers, financial institutions, payment networks and technology providers to advance the use of digital money in cross-border financial activity.
According to the Monetary Authority of Singapore, BLOOM's purpose is to ensure that as different players develop things like tokenised deposits and regulated stablecoins there is coordination to support their effective use of across borders.
It brings together policymakers and the industry to ensure engagement on settlement infrastructure and frameworks that promote interoperability for cross-border digital money transactions. It will include how relevant international standards and jurisdiction-specific supervisory expectations can be applied for such transactions, while allowing for differences in local requirements.
Bank Negara Malaysia and Bank of Thailand are now onboard, along with big names including Airwallex, Mastercard, Maybank, Monee, Nium, Ripple, ShopeePay, Visa and the World Bank Group.
Participants will focus on three areas: acceptance and settlement across jurisdictions; interoperability across digital money arrangements; and programmable controls.
Leong Sing Chiong, deputy MD, markets and development, MAS, says: "To fully harness the benefits of using digital money, collaboration among policymakers and industry participants will be needed to address practical issues around acceptance, settlement and interoperability."