PCI SSC marks 20 years with Asia-Pacific meeting in Kuala Lumpur

The PCI Security Standards Council will bring banks, retailers, payment providers and security leaders to Kuala Lumpur on 11-12 November 2026 for its Asia-Pacific Community Meeting. The event comes as AI is reshaping payments and raising new security risks across the region.

Why it matters: - The payments industry is facing faster-moving fraud and cyberattacks as AI changes how transactions are approved, monitored and defended. - The Kuala Lumpur meeting is designed to help banks, retailers, payment service providers and security teams respond to those risks while protecting consumer trust. - The event also marks 20 years since PCI SSC was founded, underscoring how payment security has shifted from basic card protection to broader digital risk management.

What happened: - The PCI Security Standards Council will hold its Asia-Pacific Community Meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on 11-12 November 2026. - Kuala Lumpur last hosted the event in 2023. - The meeting theme is "Celebrating 20 Years of Progress – and Shaping the Future of Payment Security." - The event will gather participants from across Asia-Pacific and beyond, including banks, retailers, payment service providers, assessors, technology providers and security professionals.

The details: - The agenda includes sessions on trust and scalability in an autonomous payments world, AI-driven governance, and emerging payment threats from AI agents in the cardholder data environment. - Other sessions will focus on regional case studies from India, a national approach to resilience, and turning PCI standards into business value. - The full programme will also address the borderless payments ecosystem, recurring vulnerabilities, global ecosystem security and security management strategies. - The keynote speaker will be Dr CJ Meadows, who will present "Thinking Beyond Technology to Build the Next 20 Years of Trust." - Dr Meadows leads the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center at S P Jain School of Global Management and is recognized for work on emerging technology, creativity, human behavior and the future of work. - Event details list the venue as Mandarin Oriental, Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur City Centre, Kuala Lumpur, 50088, Malaysia. - Registration and the full agenda are available here. - PCI SSC says it was founded in 2006 and has set a global benchmark for protecting cardholder data.

Between the lines: - The emphasis on AI reflects a broader shift in payments security, where static controls are under pressure from more adaptive attacks. - Framing compliance as business value suggests PCI SSC is trying to move the conversation beyond box-checking and toward operational resilience and growth. - Bringing the event back to Kuala Lumpur signals the region's growing role in shaping payment security standards and responses.

What's next: - Delegates will use the November meeting to compare regional approaches and discuss how to secure increasingly autonomous payment systems. - PCI SSC will use the anniversary event to position its standards for the next phase of AI-driven payments risk. - Dr Meadows's keynote is expected to set the tone for discussions on trust, innovation and responsible adoption of new technology.

The bottom line: - PCI SSC is marking 20 years by putting AI-era payment security at the center of its Asia-Pacific agenda, with Kuala Lumpur serving as the venue for the next round of industry planning.