Payment Cards Group joins HKMA expert group on agentic finance

A3A PayTech joins Project SAGE effort

The Payment Cards Group Limited, or PCG, announced on November 4, 2026, that it had joined the HKMA's Agentic Finance Expert Group. PCG is a Hong Kong-headquartered financial technology and payments infrastructure company operating under the A3A PayTech brand.

According to the HKMA, Project SAGE, short for Securing Agentic Finance with Governance and Enablement, aims to support the responsible development and adoption of agentic finance in Hong Kong. The expert group includes representatives from financial institutions, technology service providers, professional service firms and academia.

Focus areas include identity and interoperability

The project will explore several areas that could shape how AI agents interact with financial services. These include market development and use case exploration, agent identity, interoperability standards, and legal and regulatory frameworks, according to the announcement.

For PCG, participation places its payments infrastructure experience within a wider discussion about the controls needed for software agents to carry out financial activities. The company said its view of agentic finance is based on trusted infrastructure in which businesses and individuals define rules, permissions and limits. AI could then execute approved financial actions within those mandates.

That approach differs from allowing AI to spend without constraints. The company said appropriate authentication, authorisation, risk controls and human accountability would remain important as agentic finance develops.

Payments infrastructure could support future agent activity

PCG said it has spent the past decade developing infrastructure covering payment acceptance, processing, settlement and card solutions. Through A3A PayTech, the group develops cloud-native payment processing capabilities for payment acceptance, transaction processing and merchant settlement.

The company also provides merchant acquiring and Payment Facilitator-as-a-Service solutions, while advancing card issuance initiatives and exploring stablecoin settlement applications. It described agentic finance as a possible next stage in the way businesses move and manage money.

According to PCG, potential applications could eventually range from everyday payments and procurement to treasury operations and machine-to-machine commerce. Joining the HKMA group gives the company a role in discussions over the identity, standards and regulatory frameworks that may determine whether such uses can operate with defined permissions and accountability. The announcement does not set out a launch date or specific product resulting from the group's work.