Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand central banks expand cross-border stablecoin initiative involving Ripple, Visa and Mastercard
The central banks of Malaysia and Thailand are joining Singapore's BLOOM (Borderless, Liquid, Open, Online, Multi-currency) initiative to work on cross-border payments involving stablecoins and tokenized deposits.Singapore's Monetary Authority (MAS) confirmed Friday that Bank Negara Malaysia and the Bank of Thailand had joined as policymaker members. Ripple, Visa, Mastercard, and the World Bank Group are also among the initiative's participants, alongside Circle, Coinbase, JPMorgan, Standard Chartered, and Stripe.BLOOM began in October last year, with MAS bringing together banks and technology firms to test payments using tokenized bank money and regulated stablecoins. Singapore has separately tested a wholesale central bank digital currency.Cross-border payments and settlementRipple first announced its participation in BLOOM in March, when it said it would test trade payments using RLUSD on the XRP Ledger. The trial with supply chain fintech firm Unloq uses its SC+ platform to automate payment releases when predefined conditions are met.MAS said the work will focus on how banks handle different forms of digital money for cross-border transactions, how different networks can interoperate, and safeguards, including identity checks, sanctions screening, and transaction controls."The future of finance will involve multiple forms of digital money operating across different institutions and markets," MAS Deputy Managing Director Leong Sing Chiong said Friday.Bank Negara Malaysia Deputy Governor Aznan bin Abdul Aziz said cross-border payments using multiple forms of digital money were becoming a more tangible prospect, while Bank of Thailand's Deputy Governor Daranee Saeju said BLOOM would help it examine regulatory approaches to tokenized money, particularly in cross-border payments and wholesale settlement.