Ant International, Mastercard, and Visa Unite to Launch KYA Framework for AI Commerce

Ant International, Mastercard, and Visa have initiated a collaboration to develop a Know-Your-Agent (KYA) interoperability framework, addressing the security requirements of the emerging agentic commerce sector. For fintech professionals, this move signals a shift toward standardising how autonomous AI agents are identified and verified across disparate card and digital wallet networks to facilitate secure, high-value automated transactions.

What was announced

The collaboration aims to streamline the onboarding and identification of AI agents across payment networks, marketplaces, and agent platforms. This initiative is built upon shared principles while allowing each participating network to maintain its own internal verification and decisioning processes. The urgency of the framework is underscored by projections that AI agents—which are evolving from simple recommendation engines to autonomous purchasers—could orchestrate between US$3 trillion and US$5 trillion of global consumer commerce by 2030.

The three organisations are working to align their existing proprietary protocols: Visa’s Trusted Agent Protocol, Mastercard Verifiable Intent, and Ant International’s Agentic Mobile Protocol. The resulting KYA framework focuses on three primary pillars: cross-network operator traceability, which links every agent to a validated individual or business; shared certification requirements to ensure agents meet specific security and behavioural standards; and continuous transaction monitoring using identity and transaction signals to maintain ongoing certification.

This work is being advanced through BuildFin.ai, an industry platform convened by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). BuildFin.ai serves as a collaborative hub for financial institutions and technology providers to scale responsible AI solutions. By utilizing the Safeguards for Agentic Finance at Runtime (SAFR) framework, the participants intend to reduce integration complexity and duplicative verification efforts for service providers, potentially lowering the cost and time-to-market for new agentic financial services in the Singaporean market and beyond.

"Interoperability across Know-Your-Agent frameworks is essential to making agentic commerce work at scale, giving merchants, platforms, wallets and issuers a consistent way to recognise trusted agents, verify that actions reflect the user’s intent, and preserve accountability across the transaction,"

Pablo Fourez, Chief Digital Officer, Mastercard.

The companies involved

The collaboration brings together three of the most influential entities in the global payments landscape. Visa and Mastercard operate the world’s dominant card networks and have been central to the development of digital payment standards for decades. FF News has tracked extensive activity from both firms, with 671 stories covering Visa and 938 stories focused on Mastercard, reflecting their continuous involvement in fintech innovation and infrastructure. Their participation ensures that any KYA framework has the potential for immediate global reach across traditional banking rails.

Ant International represents a critical bridge to the digital wallet and mobile payment ecosystem. As a major player in the global fintech space, Ant International has been featured in 84 FF News reports, often regarding its role in expanding cross-border payment capabilities and digital merchant services. By involving both traditional card networks and a leader in mobile-first finance, the KYA initiative addresses the two primary "rails" of modern commerce, ensuring that AI agents can operate seamlessly whether they are backed by a credit card or a digital wallet balance.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has closely monitored the rise of agentic commerce and the infrastructure required to support it. Recently, we covered how Mastercard and Backbase Launch Agentic Banking Solutions for 120+ Global Banks, a move that brought autonomous banking capabilities directly into the hands of traditional financial institutions. This followed a significant Mastercard report revealing how agentic commerce will reshape shopping, which predicted a £370 billion shift in AI-driven spending. Additionally, the industry's push toward integrated, secure digital payments was highlighted when Mastercard and Flowcart joined forces to power secure card payments into social commerce, demonstrating the ongoing expansion of payment rails into new digital interaction layers.

What this means

The industry is moving from "Know Your Customer" (KYC) to "Know Your Agent" (KYA), a transition that represents a fundamental change in how transaction intent is validated. This announcement puts pressure on smaller payment networks and independent AI developers to align with these emerging standards or risk being excluded from the "trusted" ecosystems of the major networks. The move toward interoperability suggests the industry recognizes that a fragmented approach to AI agent identity would lead to high fraud rates and consumer distrust. However, significant questions remain regarding liability; the sector must still determine who is legally responsible when a "verified" agent makes an autonomous purchase that the human owner later disputes.