(18 February 2026 – APAC) Singapore-based DBS Bank has become the first bank in Asia Pacific to trial Visa Intelligent Commerce, a suite of APIs and partner tools developed by Visa to enable consent-based payments executed by AI agents on behalf of consumers.
The pilot included live food and beverage transactions, demonstrating how AI-powered agents can complete purchases using credit and debit cards through secure, issuer-controlled authentication flows. The initiative comes amid growing AI adoption in Singapore, where recent research indicates widespread use of generative AI tools for daily tasks and online shopping.
Building on the initial trial, DBS and Visa plan to expand testing into broader agentic commerce use cases, including e-commerce and travel bookings. Ananya Sen, Group Head of Regional Consumer Products at DBS, said the collaboration highlights how agent-led payments can be deployed “securely and safely at scale”, reinforcing customer confidence in AI-enabled transactions.
Elsewhere, Mastercard is advancing similar capabilities. In New Zealand, the payments network worked with Westpac to complete the country’s first transaction using its Agent Pay framework, purchasing cinema tickets on a Westpac-issued debit card with full cardholder consent and clear visibility across the payment chain. Mastercard has also showcased agentic payment transactions in India with cards issued by Axis Bank and RBL Bank, signalling intensifying competition to define the next phase of AI-driven commerce.