SINGAPORE, April 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Visa, a global leader in digital payments, today announced the launch of Visa Agentic Ready in Singapore with 13 issuers, spanning across banks and fintechs. This global programme is designed to support the payments ecosystem in the era of agentic commerce.
Powered by Visa’s trust layer, which includes tokens, identity, risk and controls, the first phase of Visa Agentic Ready is focused on issuer readiness. It gives them a clear, structured path to test and validate agent-initiated transactions inside a controlled, production-grade environment so that consumers remain in control as decision-making becomes increasingly automated.
From Readiness to Real‑World Scale
Bringing agentic commerce at scale requires coordination with different partners across the payments ecosystem, and Visa will work with its existing issuing clients in Singapore for the Agentic Ready programme. These partners include Bank of China Singapore, CIMB Singapore, DBS Bank, DCS, GXS Bank, HSBC Singapore, Maybank Singapore, OCBC, Standard Chartered, StraitsX, Trust Bank, UQPay and UOB, with additional partners expected to join this year as the programme expands.
Adeline Kim, Country Manager for Singapore & Brunei at Visa said: “Singapore is an innovation hub where ideas move quickly from concept to real-world impact, making it the ideal market to progress agentic commerce. A Visa-commissioned study underscores strong consumer readiness, where close to 77 per cent of Singapore residents already use generative AI tools in their daily lives, and eight in 10 rely on AI assistance when shopping online. We want to ensure that in this early phase, we work with as many partners as possible to ensure they have the right technology to prepare for this next phase of commerce, where AI agents can discover, decide and pay on behalf of consumers.”
“Visa Agentic Ready builds on Visa Intelligent Commerce, which is Visa’s portfolio of initiatives and solutions for enabling trusted, AI-driven commerce experiences at scale. As we roll out agentic commerce, we’re also working with merchants and ecosystem partners to identify the use cases that matter most to consumers. Trust and control must be embedded across the payments ecosystem so these new commerce experiences can scale securely and transparently,” added Adeline.
This follows Visa’s announcement in March on early pilot testing with DBS, focused on everyday use cases.
Partner Quotes:
Mr Sonny Tan, Deputy General Manager and Deputy Country Head at Bank of China Limited, Singapore Branch, “Bank of China Singapore is pleased to partner with Visa on the Agentic Ready pilot in Asia Pacific. This initiative enables us to evaluate agent- initiated payments within a secure and controlled environment. Such collaboration is vital as digital commerce continues to evolve, helping ensure innovation is delivered in a way that is secure, scalable, and aligned with real client needs.”
Ms Merlyn Tsai, Head of Consumer Banking and Digital at CIMB Singapore and Regional Head of Digital Strategy, “CIMB Singapore is pleased to collaborate with Visa on the Agentic Ready pilot in Asia Pacific. The pilot enables us to explore agent-initiated payments within a controlled and secure environment. Partnerships like this are critical as digital commerce continues to evolve, ensuring innovation is introduced in a way that is secure, scalable, and aligned with genuine client needs.”
Ms. Chan Sow Han, Head of Payments & Unsecured Lending, Consumer Banking Group, DBS Bank, “Our journey as the first bank in Asia Pacific to pilot Visa Intelligent Commerce highlights DBS’ pioneering role in AI innovation for payments. Joining the Visa Agentic Ready programme is a natural evolution of this expertise, allowing us to collaboratively drive the secure and widespread adoption of AI-driven commerce, and deliver exceptional convenience and control to our customers”
Ms. Karen Low, Chief Executive Officer, DCS, “Agentic commerce is a vital evolution that will fundamentally transform the way we transact in a digital-first world. DCS is built on a foundation of innovation, and our collaboration with Visa centres on architecting more frictionless, efficient, and scalable customer experiences securely.”
Ms Jenn Ong, Group Head of Retail at GXS Bank, “Our collaboration with Visa to design and test the Agentic Payments Framework marks a step forward in GXS Bank’s journey to further AI-powered tokenised transactions. This initiative will enable us to drive innovation that makes digital payments easier and more secure for our customers.”
Mr. Nadeesha Senaratne, Head of Retail Products, HSBC Singapore, “While emerging AI-driven commerce presents new opportunities, it is important that these experiences can be delivered securely and at scale. Initiatives like Visa Agentic Ready provide a structured environment to test future payment journeys and assess the safeguards needed to ensure that our customers can transact safely and with confidence.”
Ms. Tessa Er, Head, Cards & Personal Loans, Maybank Singapore,” Maybank is pleased to partner with Visa on the Agentic Ready Programme as we evolve our cards proposition in step with changing consumer behaviours. We see significant opportunity to deliver more seamless, secure and personalised payment experiences for our cardmembers, reinforcing our focus on everyday relevance, flexibility and trust.”
Ms. Regina Lim, Head of Card Payments and Personal Loans, OCBC, “This initiative aligns with our strategy to leverage AI, digital and data to power customer centricity, with the promise of AI transforming payments for consumers now closer at hand. We will work closely with Visa to test new payment technologies and design the right product for the right customer, delivered at the right time.”
Ms. Grace Chan, Managing Director, Personal Banking & Credit Cards and Personal Loans, Singapore, at Standard Chartered, “As AI-driven commerce models evolve, payments infrastructure will need to evolve with them. Visa Agentic Ready provides a valuable opportunity to test and validate how agent-initiated transactions may operate in a controlled setting before wider adoption. That practical understanding will be important in helping us prepare for changing customer expectations and the next phase of digital payments.”
Mr. Liu Tianwei, CEO & Co-Founder, StraitsX, “At StraitsX, we’re focused on the real-world usage of stablecoins and see X402 and Machine Payments Protocol (MPP) as key to a more agent-centric future. Through Visa Agentic Ready, we’re excited to help bring agent-driven payments to Visa’s network of 175 million merchants in a secure and scalable way.”
Mr. Dwaipayan Sadhu, CEO, Trust Bank Singapore, “At Trust Bank, we’re delighted to partner with Visa to design and test an agentic payments framework. This collaboration reflects our commitment to continuously improving how customers pay – making payments more seamless, secure and intuitive – while building robust, reliable infrastructure for the future of digital commerce.”
Mr. Jack Li, Founder and CEO at UQPAY, “As commerce shifts toward agent-initiated interactions, trust, security, and user control remain essential. At UQPAY, we are building infrastructure that enables secure, policy-driven, and programmable payment execution within intelligent workflows. This ensures businesses are ready for a future where AI agents can transact seamlessly on behalf of users.”
Ms. Jacquelyn Tan, Head, Group Personal Financial Services, UOB, “UOB is proud to take part in the Visa Agentic Ready programme, which will enable us to further explore the potential and opportunities presented by agent-initiated transactions in a safe, controlled yet realistic environment. Through this programme, we continue to forge ahead in utilising advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) in a responsible manner, to innovate and elevate the retail experience for our customers.”
Globally, Visa is expanding its Visa Intelligent Commerce portfolio to help businesses participate in AI-driven shopping. Visa recently unveiled Intelligent Commerce Connect, designed to provide an on-ramp to agentic commerce through a single integration via the Visa Acceptance Platform, supporting secure payment initiation, tokenisation, authentication and spend controls, and helping merchants make their catalogues discoverable within AI shopping experiences.
About Visa
Visa (NYSE: V) is a world leader in digital payments, facilitating transactions between consumers, sellers, financial institutions and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, convenient, reliable and secure payments network, enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. We believe that economies that include everyone everywhere, uplift everyone everywhere and see access as foundational to the future of money movement. Learn more at Visa.com.
