How MAS helped Triple-A fintech with regulatory clarity

Singapore, Monetary Authority of Singapore: MAS Introduces BLOOM Initiative to Enhance Settlement Capabilities The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has launched the BLOOM initiative, aimed at expanding settlement capabilities for financial institutions. BLOOM, which stands for Borderless, Liquid, Open, Online, Multi-currency, will facilitate settlement in tokenised bank liabilities and well-regulated stablecoins, while managing risks in the digital settlement asset landscape through standardized approaches. This initiative builds on the foundation of Project Orchid, which explored the digital Singapore dollar and its supporting infrastructure. BLOOM addresses the private sector's interest in tokenised bank liabilities and stablecoins, supporting multiple currencies and both domestic and cross-border payments. It focuses on wholesale use cases such as corporate treasury management and trade finance. Industry collaboration is a key component, with members like Circle, DBS, and Stripe working on distribution and clearing of settlement assets, programmable compliance controls, and agentic payments using AI. MAS invites additional financial institutions and regulatory bodies to join BLOOM, aiming to enhance digital asset capabilities and foster financial innovation. Source: https://lnkd.in/eqHDvs44

A recently published Fintech Guide by GLI covers 22 jurisdictions, including several EU countries, the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Japan, India and others. These country chapters analyze the essential elements of key influential regulations that have a decisive impact on fintech in the EU and other selected countries, such as the EU's DORA, MiCA, NIS2, PSD and the UK's FSMA. https://lnkd.in/djftCBjn

Asia’s Payments Race: The Next Battleground for Money Movement: From Singapore to Seoul, Asia is shaping the future of how money moves. The latest McKinsey Global Payments Report shows that the region sits at the crossroads of fragmentation, digital assets, and AI-driven disruption – and whoever masters this new payments order will set the pace for global finance. #mcKinsey #payments

🌏 The Asian Regulator That Thinks Like a Banker 🌏 While the West built walls after 2008, Singapore built balance — enter the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). Unlike most regulators, MAS wears two hats: It’s both the central bank 🏦 and the financial regulator 🔍. That means it controls monetary policy, banking supervision, and market regulation — all under one roof. MAS didn’t just copy MiFID or EMIR. Instead, it tailored global standards to fit Asia’s growing markets: ✅ Promotes innovation and fintech (think Project Ubin & digital asset pilots). ✅ Enforces robust AML and market conduct rules. ✅ Ensures transparency in derivatives, repos, and securities trades. ✅ Keeps Singapore’s markets globally compliant and regionally competitive. In a world of over-regulation and red tape, MAS quietly became the benchmark of balanced governance — strict where it must be, flexible where it matters. 👉 What do you think — has Singapore found the sweet spot between control and innovation? #Finance #Regulations #MAS #Fintech #Markets #RiskManagement

Everyone’s excited about tokenized assets, and rightly so. RWAs promise yield, access, and liquidity that the traditional financial world never offered retail investors. But beneath the optimism lies a massive, under-discussed risk: jurisdictional fragmentation. A tokenized bond issued in Singapore isn’t automatically compliant in the U.S. A tokenized property legal in Switzerland could be a regulatory nightmare in Dubai. Even the definition of “ownership” differs, some treat tokens as securities, others as digital representations of rights. This is where things get messy. As RWAs scale, conflicting legal frameworks will collide, and projects will have to navigate multi-country compliance, custodial ambiguity, and settlement recognition across borders. Right now, teams like Ondo Finance, Centrifuge and CurioInvest are trying to bridge that gap, designing frameworks that are both legally sound and blockchain-native. But there’s no universal standard yet. Until that happens, jurisdiction wars might become the biggest bottleneck for global RWA adoption, not the tech, but the law.

Singapore’s next financial frontier has arrived: BLOOM. Announced by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in October 2025, BLOOM — short for Borderless, Liquid, Open, Online, Multi-currency — sets a new benchmark for AI-driven, compliant cross-border settlement. 🌍 Why it matters: BLOOM integrates tokenised bank liabilities, stablecoins, and AI-based compliance systems into one network. It enables real-time settlement across currencies while ensuring compliance is built in, not bolted on. It marks Singapore’s transition from digital finance experimentation (Project Orchid) to full-scale implementation. 💡 The result? Money that can move — and think — within globally harmonised guardrails. Dive deeper into what BLOOM means for fintechs, corporate treasuries, and regulators in our full feature. 👉 Read here: https://lnkd.in/g7WSMxs7 #BLOOMSingapore #MAS #FintechInnovation #AIinFinance #ProgrammableMoney #DigitalAssets #SingaporeFinance #CrossBorderPayments #Regtech #Stablecoins #TokenisedDeposits #DigitalTransformation #CorporateTreasury #GlobalFinance #ComplianceAutomation #ProjectOrchid #MASInitiatives #FinancialInfrastructure #SmartFinance #RafflesCorporateServices

Breaking Barriers in Global Payments: From Legal Frictions to Digital Rails - In this episode of #RegulatoryRamblings, we explore two critical dimensions shaping the future of global payments. Spotlight - Is Swift Breaking the Wall Between Traditional Finance and DeFi? with Syed Musheer Ahmed & Monica Jasuja: Swift’s move into tokenized finance - what does it mean for the convergence of TradFi and DeFi? We discuss blockchain adoption, stablecoins, and whether these innovations truly solve correspondent banking inefficiencies. Extraterritorial Frictions on Cross-Border Payments Laws with M. Konrad Borowicz: Cross-border payments aren’t just a tech challenge - they’re a legal and geopolitical puzzle. We unpack settlement finality, data privacy, AML compliance, and governance, and why regional payment blocs may emerge instead of a global framework. Key themes include | Now LIVE at hkufintech.com/rr : ▪️ Swift’s blockchain-based settlement strategy ▪️ TradFi–DeFi convergence and tokenization ▪️ Legal frictions in linking payment infrastructures ▪️ Sanctions, sovereignty, and data protection ▪️ Instant payments vs. stablecoins for compliance The Regulatory Ramblings podcast is brought to you by The University of Hong Kong's Reg/Tech Lab (Building Better Financial Systems), HKU-SCF Fintech Academy, Asia Global Institute, and HKU-edX Professional Certificate in FinTech, with support from HKU Law. The programme is led by Douglas Arner (HKU/ Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, Cambridge Judge Business School) and hosted by Ajay Shamdasani. About our guests: Syed Musheer Ahmed is a fintech leader with 18+ years in capital markets and virtual assets. He co-founded the FinTech Association of Hong Kong and Founder of FinStep Asia, driving innovation across Asia’s financial ecosystem. Monica Jasuja is Chief Expansion & Innovation Officer at Emerging Payments Association Asia and Advisory Board Chair at Fintech Fusion India. With 20+ years in digital payments and product strategy, she has led initiatives across global markets to build scalable, consumer-focused solutions. M. Konrad Borowicz is Assistant Professor at Tilburg University - Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society (TILT). His research focuses on payments regulation and financial law. Before academia, he practiced finance law in London and now publishes widely on cross-border payment systems.

𝑴𝑨𝑺 𝑳𝒂𝒖𝒏𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒔 𝑩𝑳𝑶𝑶𝑴: 𝑬𝒙𝒑𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑩𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝑫𝒊𝒈𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝑺𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has launched BLOOM - 𝐁orderless, 𝐋iquid, 𝐎pen, 𝐎nline, 𝐌ulti-currency, a bold initiative that redefines how settlements can occur in a tokenised economy. 𝑩𝑳𝑶𝑶𝑴 enables financial institutions to explore settlements using 𝒕𝒐𝒌𝒆𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒆𝒅 bank money and regulated 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒔, under a trusted and compliant framework. It’s a major step toward a borderless, interoperable, and secure digital financial ecosystem — one that balances innovation with accountability. At Pecuniya, we help institutions align with these next-generation infrastructures through regulatory governance, AML/CFT readiness, and digital risk frameworks, ensuring innovation remains responsible. Read our full insight here: https://lnkd.in/gSbGnV-p #Singapore #MAS #DigitalFinance #Tokenisation #Fintech #Pecuniya #Compliance #FinancialInnovation

💱 Sending money across borders is still surprisingly slow and expensive. A game-changing plan called Project Nexus aims to fix this. 🏦 Led by the Bank for International Settlements – BIS, it’s a blueprint to connect the world's individual instant payment systems (like the USA's FedNow or India's UPI). 🌍 Think of it as a universal translator that allows different national systems to "speak" to each other seamlessly. The result? International payments could be sent and received in under 60 seconds, at a fraction of today's cost. I've put together a short presentation that breaks down how this all works. Take a look and let me know what you think the biggest challenge will be: the technology itself, or getting all the countries to agree on a common set of rules? PwC Austria #ProjectNexus #CrossBorderPayments #Fintech #GlobalPayments #DigitalTransformation #InstantPayments

Singapore fintech sees surge in investments despite global trade fragmentation and tariff escalation: Global fintech investments saw $44.7 billion across 2,216 deals in H1 2025, a dip from the $54.2 billion recorded across 2,376 deals in H2 2024. “The ...