Credit: © Immagini e Video di Michelangelo via Canva.com Ant International, Mastercard and Visa have begun working together on a shared Know-Your-Agent framework. It covers AI agents that make purchases on behalf of users. The three companies announced the collaboration on Thursday, Singapore time. Reuters and CNBC also reported it.
According to the announcement, the framework is meant to help card networks, digital wallets, agent platforms and marketplaces. It would let them onboard and identify AI agents across networks. Each network would keep its own verification and decision-making processes. What the framework covers The companies listed three areas of work.
The first is operator traceability across networks, which links each agent to a validated operator, cardholder or business. The second is shared certification, under which each agent is assessed against security and behavioural requirements. The third is continuous monitoring of each agent, using identity and transaction signals. Each company already has its own protocol for agent payments.
They are Visa’s Trusted Agent Protocol, Mastercard Verifiable Intent and Ant International’s Agentic Mobile Protocol. The companies said they will now explore ways to work towards common principles. The work will run through BuildFin.ai, a platform convened by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. It builds on the regulator’s Safeguards for Agentic Finance at Runtime, or SAFR, framework, and covers payment ecosystems in Singapore.
What the companies said The announcement cites a McKinsey projection that AI agents could orchestrate $3tn to $5tn of global consumer commerce by 2030. Pablo Fourez, Mastercard’s chief digital officer, said in the announcement: “Interoperability across Know-Your-Agent frameworks is essential to making agentic commerce work at scale.” For Visa, Rubail Birwadker said: “As AI agents become a bigger part of how people discover and buy, trust must scale with them.” He is Visa’s global head of growth products and strategic partnerships. Jiang-Ming Yang, Ant International’s chief innovation officer, gave an example of what interoperability would mean. “If [an] agent registers with Ant, they don’t need to register again with Visa, Mastercard,” he told CNBC’s Evelyn Cheng. He also told CNBC that AI agents’ potential for hallucination meant “we need to make sure people feel safe.” Cards and wallets Ant International runs Alipay+, which it says connects 150 million merchants to more than 50 digital wallets and banking apps.
Ant International separated from Hangzhou-based Ant Group nearly three years ago, CNBC noted. Ant Group runs Alipay in mainland China. TNW reported in July that Ant International raised $1.2bn for its global expansion. CNBC cited Worldpay figures for 2025.
Digital wallets accounted for 56% of global e-commerce value and 33% of point-of-sale value. TNW has covered other AI shopping agents this year. Meta launched Muse, a personal agent that books and buys, on Tuesday. Amazon has put Alexa inside its search bar, and China’s tech giants are rolling out agents that shop for users.
In March, Paris-based agentic commerce start-up Lemrock raised €6m.
