Yet the eye-catching billboard ads in airports like Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi belong instead to Malaysia’s CIMB Bank. Above its red logo, sepia-toned photos of ten ­female faces are spliced.

An example of this is the launch of OctoTravel, Malaysia’s first bank-linked travel site and mobile app, in early 2022. CIMB cardholders can plan all their travel needs on the platform. Another was ...