SBI Holdings, SBI Everspin, Everspin and KB Kookmin Card have signed a memorandum of understanding to test AI-agent identity and authorization controls for services operating between Japan and South Korea.
The companies plan staged demonstrations using KYA Trust Gateway, a platform being developed by SBI Everspin and Everspin. KYA stands for Know Your Agent. The system would check digital credentials held by an agent to establish its identity and trustworthiness before connecting it to another organization’s services.
The initial trial will focus on Japanese AI agents accessing Korean services. It will test whether the gateway can validate their digital credentials and determine whether an agent can be trusted. Later phases would examine user-delegated authority and access permissions for individual services.
The parties also intend to explore connections with KB Pay, KB Kookmin Card’s mobile payment service. That work would consider how agents could interact with payment systems within the permissions granted by users, including approval processes for actions requiring confirmation.
A subsequent phase would explore cross-border payments using digital assets such as stablecoins held by Japanese travelers visiting South Korea. The planned examination covers payment and settlement, cancellations, refunds and detection of fraudulent transactions, rather than only the initial transfer of funds.
SBI Holdings will examine links to Japanese financial and digital-asset infrastructure, as well as issuance, management and validation of agent credentials. It also plans to assess distributed-ledger methods for checking the integrity of authentication, authorization and transaction records, including third-party verification and audits.
SBI Everspin will work on the gateway’s Japanese architecture and service connections. Everspin will implement and test security functions for agent authentication, permissions and transaction reliability, while KB Kookmin Card examines integration with KB Pay and its payment infrastructure.
Enterprise providers have been adding similar categories of agent controls. Pathlock’s Nexus platform governs agents alongside human users across business applications, including controls over permissions and time-limited access.
Okta has extended agent governance across identity providers, with owner assignment, policy controls and activity records. The SBI partnership focuses its planned testing on cross-border credential validation first, followed by delegated authority and connections to financial and nonfinancial services.
Sources: SBI Holdings
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
