Singapore is aiming to get ahead in the world of tokenised and AI-driven payments with a new initiative which has already attracted the attention of major firms.
Singapore’s central bank has launched BLOOM, a new initiative aimed at offering banks and corporations more options for settling payments using tokenised liabilities and regulated stablecoins.
BLOOM, which stands for ‘Borderless, Liquid, Open, Online, Multi-currency’, was announced on October 16 by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
The programme will focus on improving how settlement assets are distributed and cleared, making it easier to use, move and redeem tokenised money across different networks. Early participants in this work include Circle, DBS, OCBC, Partior, Stripe and UOB.
Another key area is programmable controls to automate compliance checks. MAS says standardising these processes will reduce costs and make cross-border wholesale settlements more reliable, with Ant International and StraitsX contributing to this work.
BLOOM will also explore agentic payments, where AI agents carry out transactions automatically according to pre-set rules. Coinbase and DBS are leading these efforts, with Coinbase notably developing x402, a new protocol enabling instant stablecoin payments directly over the internet.
Building on Project Orchid
Kenneth Gay, Chief FinTech Officer at MAS, noted BLOOM is a natural progression from the central bank’s Project Orchid, a multi-year initiative launched in 2021 to explore the infrastructure and design of a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC).
“Project Orchid established the technical competencies necessary to support the digital Singapore dollar and explored potential use cases for it,” said Gay. “BLOOM takes this further, enhancing the range of settlement asset options for participants.”
He went on to explain that MAS sees BLOOM as complementary to its other initiatives, including Project Guardian, which focuses on asset tokenisation, and the Global Layer One programme, which develops foundational infrastructure.
By addressing operational and implementation challenges around settlement assets, BLOOM aims to strengthen digital capabilities in financial institutions and accelerate innovation across Singapore’s payments ecosystem.
Agentic commerce and the next wave of payments innovation
BLOOM comes at a time when AI-driven payments are rapidly emerging. Companies across the industry are building systems which enable AI agents to complete transactions automatically on behalf of users.
Google’s Agentic Pay, integrated with its Gemini AI modules, is a key example. The system removes traditional checkout steps, allowing purchases to happen in milliseconds and shifts the competitive focus from platforms to AI agents.
However, it also raises questions about consumer protection, liability and accountability, especially when combined with newer payment models like BNPL.
Visa has responded with its Trusted Agent Protocol (TAP), which verifies the identity and intent of AI agents before payments are processed. Google’s AP2 protocol and Coinbase’s x402 protocol are also working to create standardised, cross-platform frameworks for agent-led commerce.
This trend highlights why BLOOM is so relevant. By enabling tokenised money, automated compliance, and AI-driven payments, the initiative lets Singapore’s banks and companies experiment with new payment methods in a regulated setting.
