Southeast Asia’s largest lender, DBS Bank Limited entered into a strategic partnership with global digital payments leader Visa to advance the future of agent-initiated payments through a joint pilot under Visa Intelligent Commerce (VIC).
- With this, DBS has now become the first issuer in Asia Pacific to advance real-world agentic commerce use cases.
- This will provide a large suite of integrated application programming interfaces (APIs) and partner programs, which will use Visa’s secure infrastructure to enable secure, transparent and consent-based payments by Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents on behalf of customers.
- Under the pilot, AI-powered agents successfully executed food and beverage transactions on behalf of customers using DBS/POSB credit and debit cards, with payments processed through secure, issuer-controlled flows and customer consent.
- Following the successful demonstration, DBS and Visa plan to expand the pilot to include online shopping, travel booking and other regular digital payment transactions.
- DBS and Visa successfully demonstrated through a series of real-world food and beverage transactions that AI-powered agents can complete daily tasks on behalf of customers using DBS/POSB credit and debit cards through secure, issuer-controlled flows.
- This collaboration will now help DBS and Visa explore a wider range of agentic commerce transactions, such as online shopping, travel booking and much more.
- These trials aim to make digital transactions easier for customers, reduce manual steps and simplify the payment process - all while maintaining strict controls.
About DBS
- DBS Bank was established on 16 July, 1968 by the Singapore government as the Development Bank of Singapore to support industrialization, and it received financing from the Economic Development Board.
- DBS is a leading financial services group in Asia with presence in 19 markets. Headquartered and listed in Singapore, DBS is in the three key Asian growth axes: Greater China, Southeast Asia and South Asia. The bank’s “AA-” and “Aa1” credit ratings are among the highest in the world.
- Recognized for its global leadership, DBS has been named “World’s Best Bank” by Global Finance, “World’s Best Bank” by Euromoney and “Global Bank of the Year” by The Banker.
- The bank is at the forefront of using digital technology to shape the future of banking, and has been named “World’s Best Digital Bank” by Euromoney and “Most Innovative in Digital Banking” in the world by The Banker.
About Visa Intelligent Commerce (VIC)
- An initiative launched by Visa in April, 2025 designed to facilitate secure, autonomous and AI-driven transactions.
- It represents a shift from traditional manual online shopping to “agentic commerce”, where Artificial Intelligence agents (such as chatbots, virtual assistants) are given authority to browse, select and purchase goods on behalf of users.
- Visa includes two main areas: development of financial payment service (Visa Inc.) and development of international travel document (travel visa).
- Visa Inc. began in 1958 as BankAmericard, which became a global network in 1976. Travel visa originated in the 19th century and expanded formally in the 20th century, leading to modern electronic, biometrically-secured systems.