As international visitors return to China in growing numbers, the way money flows into the country is being rebuilt across several rails at once: international cards linked to domestic mobile wallets, overseas e-wallets connecting directly to local acceptance networks, cross-border QR interoperability, and next-generation remittance channels. What does it take to connect these rails, and what opportunities does it open up for payment providers, banks, merchants and fintechs worldwide?

Financial institutions aren’t short of intelligence. They are short of agents they will let act. Running AI agents in regulated finance requires bounded permissions, traceable actions and defensible outcomes. The challenge is no longer just what AI can do, but how institutions can govern what it does and prove it.

While Western payment giants race to crack Asia's fragmented markets, the region's homegrown fintechs have quietly gone the other way, expanding into Europe and the US. A moderated conversation with two cross-border payments leaders explores what mastering Asia's complexity has taught them about winning on the global stage.