EPAA and HSBC launch APAC working group on agentic payments

The Emerging Payments Association Asia (EPAA) has launched an AI & Agentic Payments Working Group with HSBC as a founding member, aiming to develop standards and frameworks for agentic commerce across the Asia Pacific region. The initiative brings together banks, payment networks, fintechs and technology platforms to address unresolved issues including liability when AI agents exceed their mandate, cross-border identification and authentication of agents, fraud monitoring challenges, and dispute handling for software-initiated transactions. The group will develop shared standards for agent identity, authentication and authorization, as well as trust and liability frameworks. It will also coordinate regulatory engagement across ASEAN and APEC, producing toolkits and policy recommendations. Formal policy paper recommendations are scheduled for the 51st ASEAN Summit and APEC Economic Leaders' Week in November 2027. The working group is open to member organizations across the APAC payments ecosystem, with a committee of 10-12 organizations and a wider group of up to 30.