08/06/2026

MONDAY | JUNE 8, 2026

10

BANKING & INSURANCE

Visa Agentic Ready arrives in Malaysia PETALING JAYA: Visa, a global leader in digital payments, has launched Visa Agentic Ready across Asia-Pacific, including Malaysia. The global programme is designed to support the payments ecosystem in the era of agentic commerce. o Programme enables issuers to experience how artificial intelligence agents initiate and complete transactions on behalf of consumers like Visa Agentic Ready allow us to test and better understand these new transaction flows as part of a broader, trusted payments eco system,” said Alliance Bank group chief consumer banking officer Gan Pai Li.

“Visa Agentic Ready gives banks like ours the opportunity to validate these new payment scenarios early, understand the real world implications, and assess how they could be supported responsibly before any broader adoption. This kind of structured readiness is important as payment experiences continue to evolve.” On the launch of Visa Agentic Ready, Maybank cards, group community financial services head B. Ravintharan K Balakrishnan stated, “Trust remains fundamental as new payment experiences emerge. Visa Agentic Ready allows us to explore agent initiated payments in a controlled way, helping us build confidence in how these models could scale responsibly – without compromising security or customer control.” Through the controlled, pro duction-grade testing environ ment, the programme validates how agent-initiated payments operate in real world environments, helping issuers build confidence as these new experiences become a reality.

CIMB Bank and CIMB Malaysia CEO Gurdip Singh Sidhu said, “AI is reshaping consumer behaviours and business models at unprece dented speed. “Visa Agentic Ready reflects our vision of banking that is intuitive and seamlessly woven into life, providing a structured way for us to test, learn and prepare for agent-initiated payments. This allows us to deliver secure and responsible AI powered ex periences to our customers while maintaining the trust and controls our customers expect.” Hong Leong Bank personal financial services managing director Andrew Jong commented, “Agent-initiated payments intro duce new considerations around how transactions are initiated and governed.

initiated payments could be enabled across use cases. This builds on Visa Intelligent Com merce – Visa’s portfolio of ini tiatives and solutions focused on enabling trusted, AI-driven com merce experiences at scale. Bringing agentic commerce to life at scale requires coordination across the payments ecosystem. Visa has enrolled several partners from 10 markets across the region into the Agentic Ready pro gramme including Alliance Bank, CIMB Bank, Hong Leong Bank and Maybank in Malaysia, with additional partners expected to join as the programme expands to merchants and ecosystem enablers. “Preparing for agent-initiated payments isn’t something banks can do in isolation. Programmes

In its first phase, Visa Agentic Ready focuses on issuer readiness, providing a structured pathway for issuers to test, validate and understand agent-initiated trans actions in a controlled, pro duction-grade environment. The programme enables issuers to experience how AI agents initiate and complete transactions on behalf of consumers, and to test their readiness to support agentic commerce – while main taining the trust, control and protections that underpin the Visa network. Visa Malaysia country manager Previn Pillay said, “As commerce becomes increasingly automated, trust, security and consumer control become even more im portant. Visa Agentic Ready gives

Malaysian issuers a practical and structured way to better under stand how agent initiated payments could work on the Visa network – before these experiences scale. “At the same time, Visa is also working globally with merchants, platforms, and technology part ners to enable trusted agent - driven commerce, so that when these experiences mature, they come together seamlessly across the ecosystem. This helps ensure innovation can progress res ponsibly, while keeping people firmly in control of how and when payments are made.” Visa Agentic Ready is powered by Visa’s foundational network capabilities, bringing together tokens, identity, risk and controls to examine how trusted agent

Allianz General Malaysia empowers SMEs with resilience-focused solutions

PETALING JAYA: Allianz General Insurance Company (Malaysia) Bhd is committed to empowering SMEs with innovative solutions that help them build resilience and thrive in an ever evolving business landscape. Amid heightened

covered event leads to the insured premises being forced to shut down for at least 48 hours. This financial assistance com plements the comprehensive

coverage offered by Allianz Business Shield, which offers tailored protection based on customers’ specific needs. It also leverages the standard fire and commercial fire policies, which can be extended to cover not only fire related financial losses but also risks such as floods, damage from

economic headwinds wrought by geopolitical tensions, trade restrict ions and supply chain disruptions, Allianz

HLB Duitsmart launch ceremony officiated by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Federal Territories) Hannah Yeoh, who is also the Member of Parliament for Segambut.

General said it provides tailored solutions that address key vulnera bilities, helping busi nesses safeguard their operations and adapt to evolving risks. Through its complimentary financial assistance for unex pected business closures and complimentary coverage for foreign workers, the company added it ensures SMEs have the tools and support they need to recover and seize opportunities for growth. “Our goal is to provide businesses with a safety net that not only protects their assets but also empowers them to recover and rebuild stronger when unforeseen events occur,” said CEO Sean Wang ( pic ). To support corporate policy holders during such challenging times, Allianz General is offering one-time financial assistance of up to RM20,000 under active Allianz Business Shield, standard fire or commercial fire policies. This benefit applies when a

HLB Duitsmart: Bringing financial education to students in Segambut, KL

falling trees and more. The one-off financial assistance is available until Dec 31, 2026 or until the total financial relief paid out reaches RM2.5 million. Recognising that many busi nesses across various industries employ foreign workers, Allianz General offers business owners enhanced coverage through its Foreign Workers Hospitalisation and Surgical Policy (FWHS), helping to alleviate the financial burden on employers should their foreign workers require hospitali sation due to accident or illness. Allianz General also provides added financial security through complimentary RM10,000 one year group personal accident coverage. This coverage provides support for accidental death or permanent disablement and is included with every FWHS policy issued between Feb 1 and Dec 31, 2026.

PETALING JAYA: Aligned with its commitment to boost financial education among Malaysians, Hong Leong Bank and HLB Islamic are set to deliver its flagship HLB Duitsmart financial literacy workshops through a structured education plan with 27 primary and secondary schools across Segambut District, Kuala Lumpur. Launched in 2019, HLB Duitsmart is an award-winning financial education programme that covers topics such as money management, budgeting, and scam awareness. The collaboration represents a new milestone for the programme, where it will deliver its workshops in a coordinated approach with the support of a parliamentary office, aligned with its commitment to integrate broader, community-level education in Segambut District. The collaboration was launched with the bank conducting financial

students about how money works, protecting themselves from scams, and planning for their future, and we are honoured to implement this structured programme for this district.” HLB Duitsmart has grown into one of Malaysia’s leading financial literacy programmes, leading HLB to win Bank of the Year for Community Empowerment at the Sustainability and CSR Malaysia Awards 2024. Through multilingual, activity based workshops, HLB Duitsmart has reached over 40,000 Malaysians nationwide through more than 300 workshops. The workshops are tailor-made to suit each community’s needs, and the bank has delivered everything from budgeting workshops for underprivileged communities, to scam awareness workshops for large corporations and investment focused talks in universities.

Banking & Finance “HLB Duitsmart is a manifestation of this vision, powered by our own employees who can speak from their experience and expertise. We hope to spark lasting curiosity among literacy workshops with the students at SMK Taman Tun Dr Ismail, equipping close to 300 students with essential financial management skills and scam awareness knowledge. Building on the initial launch, HLB has subsequently conducted work shops at SMK Segambut for over 600 students, and will look to conduct even more workshops this year across the district. HLB Islamic CEO Dafinah Ahmed Hilmi commented, “HLB Duitsmart is more than just a simple finance workshop. We see financial literacy as a foundation for progress, and it is our long-term commitment to make financial education accessible, practical, and relevant to every Malaysian.

Education News/Health & Wellness TUES

ESG

Property

WED

MON

THUR