Ant International, Visa and Mastercard are working on a common framework to help AI agents make payments securely across different financial networks. The initiative marks a major step toward standardized infrastructure for agentic commerce, where artificial intelligence can complete purchases on behalf of consumers.
The companies announced a collaboration on a Know-Your-Agent, or KYA, interoperability framework. The system aims to help card networks, digital wallets, AI agent platforms and marketplaces identify and trust agents without forcing each participant to build separate verification processes.
Building Trust for Agentic Commerce
AI agents are moving beyond recommendations. They can increasingly search for products, select services and complete transactions based on instructions from users. However, autonomous payments create new challenges around identity, authorization, fraud and accountability.
The proposed KYA framework will focus on several safeguards:
- Linking each AI agent to a validated operator, cardholder or organization
- Establishing shared certification and security requirements
- Continuously monitoring agent behavior and transactions
The framework would allow participating payment ecosystems to recognize common trust signals while retaining their own approval and risk-management systems. That could reduce duplicated verification work and lower integration costs for companies developing AI-powered payment services.
The collaboration builds on separate technologies already developed by the three companies. Visa has introduced its Trusted Agent Protocol, Mastercard has developed Verifiable Intent, and Ant International has launched its Agentic Mobile Protocol.
A New Infrastructure Layer for Payments
The companies will work through BuildFin.ai, an initiative convened by the Monetary Authority of Singapore that brings financial institutions, technology companies and researchers together to develop AI applications for financial services.
The timing reflects expectations for rapid growth in agentic commerce. Industry projections cited by the companies suggest AI agents could orchestrate between $3 trillion and $5 trillion in global consumer commerce by 2030.
For payment networks, the challenge is no longer simply processing transactions. They must also determine which software agents can act for consumers, what those agents are authorized to do and whether their behavior remains trustworthy.
The emerging KYA model could therefore become an important foundation for machine-driven commerce. If widely adopted, shared standards may help AI agents operate across cards and digital wallets while giving merchants and financial institutions greater visibility into automated transactions.
