Malaysian and Thai central banks join Singapore digital money initiative
Bloom will bring policymakers and industry participants together to develop shared approaches to using digital money across borders.
Bank Negara Malaysia and Bank of Thailand became policymaker members of Singapore’s Bloom initiative on Oct 23, joining efforts to develop shared approaches to digital money for cross-border transactions, according to the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
MAS chairs the public-private initiative, which connects central banks with financial institutions, payment networks and technology providers. It comes as institutions and jurisdictions develop uses for digital money, including tokenised deposits and regulated stablecoins.
Participants will concentrate on acceptance and settlement between jurisdictions, interoperability between digital money networks, and programmable compliance controls. These controls include automated screening for sanctions and verification of identities.
Bloom has two dozen industry participants, including DBS, Malayan Banking Bhd, JPMorgan, Standard Chartered, Coinbase, Temasek, Visa and Stripe. The World Bank has joined in its capacity as a multilateral development bank.
MAS deputy managing director Leong Sing Chiong said policymakers and industry needed to collaborate on practical barriers to digital money use. Bank Negara Malaysia deputy governor Aznan Abdul Aziz said the bank looked forward to exploring cross-border payments involving multiple digital monies with the participating central banks and industry partners.
