Ant International Open-Sources Agentic Mobile Protocol to Power Global AI Agent Payments

Ant International is scaling its Agentic Mobile Protocol (AMP) through global partnerships with major acquirers and card networks. For fintech leaders, this marks a significant shift toward autonomous AI-driven commerce, establishing a standardized framework for "Know-Your-Agent" (KYA) and micro-settlements that integrates directly with existing mobile payment rails and digital wallet ecosystems worldwide.

What was announced

Ant International has moved into the next phase of its Agentic Mobile Protocol (AMP), an open-source initiative launched in April 2026 designed to facilitate payments executed by AI agents. The protocol is currently being integrated across the Alipay+ ecosystem, which connects 150 million merchants to 2 billion consumer accounts through more than 50 mobile payment partners and 10 national QR networks.

In Phase I of the rollout, ten mobile wallet partners are adopting the AMP security architecture, including Alipay (China), AlipayHK, DANA (Indonesia), GCash (Philippines), KakaoPay (South Korea), MPay (Macao SAR), TNG eWallet (Malaysia), TrueMoney (Thailand), Toss (South Korea), and Starryblu (Singapore). On the merchant side, seven major acquiring partners have joined the protocol: Adyen, Allinpay, Checkout.com, Fiserv, Global Payments, Nuvei, and Worldline.

The protocol introduces several technical milestones for the industry, most notably a high-frequency nano-grade agent-to-agent (A2A) settlement mechanism. This allows for automated transactions as small as $0.000001. Additionally, Ant International is collaborating with Mastercard and Visa on a Know-Your-Agent (KYA) interoperability framework. This public-private effort, which includes the Monetary Authority of Singapore via the BuildFin.ai initiative, aims to standardize agent verification and risk management across different payment rails. To encourage industry-wide adoption, the AMP source code and developer SDKs have been made available on GitHub.

"AMP has been created to enable agents to enter existing mobile payment systems as trusted actors. We are inspired to see how, a few months into its launch, more and more wallets and payment partners are accelerating their AI strategy by bringing this exciting capability to users in the real world,"

Jiang-Ming Yang, Chief Innovation Officer at Ant International.

The companies involved

Ant International is a major player in the global digital payment landscape, primarily known for its Alipay+ ecosystem which facilitates cross-border payments between various digital wallets and merchants. The company focuses on building inclusive infrastructure for the digital economy and has been the subject of 87 reports by FF News. Its strategy centers on interoperability between disparate mobile payment systems, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region.

Visa and Mastercard, the two dominant global card networks, are central to this announcement's governance goals. Visa, which has appeared in 682 FF News stories, and Mastercard, featured in 948 stories, are lending their expertise to the Know-Your-Agent (KYA) framework. This collaboration is significant as it bridges the gap between traditional card-based transactions and the emerging world of AI-driven mobile payments. Other key participants include Fiserv, where Lia Cao serves as Chief Revenue Officer for Enterprise and Platform Clients, and Nuvei, led by Chair & CEO Phil Fayer. The involvement of these established acquirers ensures that the protocol can be deployed across a vast existing merchant footprint.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has extensively covered the evolving roles of the major card networks in local and specialized markets. Recently, we reported on how MADFIN Secures Visa Principal Membership to Accelerate UK Card Acquiring Growth, highlighting the continued expansion of Visa's ecosystem. In the consumer technology space, we covered how CIB Bank and Visa Launch RingPay Contactless Payment Rings for Retail Customers in Hungary, demonstrating the move toward hardware-integrated payment solutions. We have also tracked the intersection of digital assets and traditional rails, such as when MoneyGram Launches Stablecoin-Backed Card for Everyday Spending via Stellar Network, and the international expansion of digital banking giants like in Nu US Launch: Latin American Digital Banking Giant Enters United States Market.

What this means

This announcement signals the formalization of "agentic commerce" as a distinct vertical within fintech. By open-sourcing the protocol and bringing Visa and Mastercard into the KYA framework, Ant International is attempting to prevent the fragmentation that usually plagues new payment technologies. The introduction of nano-settlements at the $0.000001 level is a direct challenge to traditional banking infrastructure, which is currently unequipped to handle the volume or the low margins of such transactions. The industry must now address whether existing regulatory frameworks for "Know Your Customer" are sufficient when the actor initiating the transaction is an autonomous agent rather than a human.