Backbase Acquires Kasisto to Deepen Agentic Banking Push in Asia Pacific

Backbase, the Amsterdam-based AI-native banking OS provider, has acquired Kasisto, a New York developer of agentic AI software for banks and credit unions, folding its KAIgentic platform and KaiGPT proprietary banking LLM into Backbase's existing product suite. While financial terms were not disclosed, the deal adds Kasisto's North American client base — including J.P. Morgan, Standard Chartered, TD, and Westpac — to Backbase's roster of 120-plus banks globally.

The acquisition extends Backbase's strategy of building an orchestration layer that sits above core banking systems to manage work across customers, employees, and AI agents within a single governed framework. Most banks today deploy AI agents in isolated pockets that can answer queries but cannot complete underlying tasks. The combined platform handles a customer request from initial intent through to compliant resolution, with Kasisto's banking-specific compliance controls — eligibility checks, policy enforcement, and audit logging — embedded at every step.

For Asia Pacific, the deal is significant because several of Kasisto's existing clients have major operations in Singapore, and Backbase itself counts numerous Southeast Asian banks among its customers. The emphasis on governed, auditable AI agent behaviour aligns directly with the Monetary Authority of Singapore's approach to AI governance in financial services, which has emerged as a reference framework for regulators across the region.

Why it matters for Singapore: Singapore's position as Asia's leading wealth management and private banking centre means its financial institutions are under particular pressure to deploy AI agents that can handle complex, regulated workflows — not just answer customer queries. The Backbase-Kasisto combination offers a proven, compliance-ready platform that Singapore banks can adopt without building their own agentic AI infrastructure from scratch. With MAS signalling clearer expectations around AI governance in financial services, having audit-logged, policy-enforced AI agents is moving from nice-to-have to regulatory necessity.