BNM and Thailand Join BLOOM: 25 Participants, OPR Holds at 2.75%
BNM and the Bank of Thailand became policymaker members of BLOOM, Singapore's cross-border stablecoin program now spanning three Southeast Asian central banks and 25 participants.
What happened1/5 BNM and Bank of Thailand join BLOOM as policymaker members
Bank Negara Malaysia and the Bank of Thailand joined the Monetary Authority of Singapore's BLOOM initiative as policymaker members, according to FinanceFeeds on 23 October 2026.
BLOOM — Borderless, Liquid, Open, Online, Multi-currency — is a public-private program that helps financial institutions settle cross-border transactions using stablecoins and tokenized deposits. MAS launched it in October 2025, building on Project Orchid, a digital Singapore dollar exploration that began in 2021.
The initiative targets wholesale use cases: corporate treasury management, trade finance, and payments executed by AI agents within predefined limits.
The real numbers2/5 25 participants, 3 central banks, OPR at 2.75%
25BLOOM participants across 3 central banks2.75%OPR, 7th consecutive hold (3 Sep 2026)Oct 2025BLOOM launched by MASNew BLOOM participants include Maybank, ShopeePay, Mastercard, Visa, Ripple, Airwallex, Nium, Monee and the World Bank Group. Earlier members include Circle, Coinbase, DBS, OCBC, Standard Chartered, Stripe and UOB.
Ripple is testing its RLUSD stablecoin for trade finance within BLOOM, per a Cointelegraph report on 25 March 2026.
Meanwhile, BNM kept the Overnight Policy Rate at 2.75% at its 3 September 2026 meeting — the seventh consecutive hold. That rate anchors the base rates your floating-rate home loan tracks.
How it affects your wallet3/5 Your EPF, Touch 'n Go and ShopeePay are not affected
BLOOM is a wholesale payment system for banks and financial institutions. It is not a retail wallet, not a new ShopeePay feature, not a way for you to send ringgit to Singapore over a blockchain.
Your EPF balance, your Touch 'n Go, your personal remittance transfers — none of that routes through BLOOM. The program settles interbank trade finance and corporate treasury flows.
The one number that still matters for your monthly outgoings: BNM held OPR at 2.75% on 3 September 2026, the seventh unchanged decision in a row. If you have a floating-rate home loan, your interest rate tracks the bank's base rate, which follows that OPR. Fixed-rate hire-purchase car loans do not move with OPR.
Why it matters4/5 How BLOOM cuts intermediary layers in cross-border settlement
Today, a bank settling a cross-border trade payment may negotiate individual arrangements with every counterparty and intermediary in the chain. BLOOM's standardized compliance checks, built partly on the Programmable Compliance Toolkit from the Global Layer One (GL1) initiative, aim to remove those layers of intermediary verification and compress settlement time.
Southeast Asia's remittance corridors between Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand carry billions of dollars annually, according to the FinanceFeeds report.
BNM separately announced in February 2026 that three initiatives would test ringgit-denominated stablecoins and tokenized deposits for domestic and cross-border wholesale payments during 2026. Maybank has already completed an on-chain ringgit-to-Singapore-dollar foreign-exchange conversion and real-time cross-border payment under BNM's Digital Asset Innovation Hub.
- 01/02
25 BLOOM participants across 3 central banks 25 participants, 3 central banks, OPR at 2.75% BLOOM participants across 3 central banks
What to do, step by step5/5 Three things you can check this week
- Open bnm.gov.my and look under Digital Asset Innovation Hub for updates on the three ringgit stablecoin and tokenized-deposit tests running during 2026.
- Check whether your bank (Maybank, DBS, OCBC, UOB, Standard Chartered) is listed among BLOOM's 25 participants — that tells you which institutions are building the cross-border settlement rails.
- If you carry a floating-rate home loan, log into your bank's app and confirm your current base rate. It follows the OPR, which BNM held at 2.75% on 3 September 2026.
- 02/02
2.75% OPR, 7th consecutive hold (3 Sep 2026) 25 participants, 3 central banks, OPR at 2.75% OPR, 7th consecutive hold (3 Sep 2026)
Questions people ask
Can I use BLOOM to send money to Singapore or Thailand?
No. BLOOM is for financial institutions settling wholesale transactions such as trade finance and corporate treasury. It is not a retail remittance channel. Your personal transfers still go through banks, e-wallets or remittance services.
Does BLOOM mean BNM is creating a digital ringgit for the public?
Not yet. BNM's February 2026 announcement covers three initiatives testing ringgit-denominated stablecoins and tokenized deposits for wholesale payments during 2026. There is no announcement of a retail digital ringgit or a public CBDC wallet.
Will BLOOM change my home loan rate?
No. Your floating-rate home loan tracks your bank's base rate, which follows the OPR. BNM held OPR at 2.75% on 3 September 2026, the seventh consecutive hold. BLOOM operates at the interbank settlement layer and does not set consumer lending rates.
Source: The StarFinancefeeds
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