EMVCo Releases Draft Framework to Standardize Card-Based Agentic Payments

EMVCo has released a draft framework for card-based agentic payments, addressing the technical requirements for AI agents to execute transactions on behalf of consumers. This move provides a standardised foundation for establishing delegated authority and intent, a critical step for fintechs looking to integrate autonomous commerce into the global payments ecosystem.

What was announced

The technical body released the EMV® Agentic Payments – Framework for Specifications to promote secure, interoperable, and scalable agentic commerce. The framework focuses on scenarios where consumer intent must be managed over time, such as recurring purchases, post-transaction activities, and cumulative budgets. Central to this is the introduction of "Intent Services," a shared interoperable layer allowing payment participants to register, reference, retrieve, and manage consumer-authorised intent throughout the transaction lifecycle. The framework provides an overview of ecosystem roles and data fields necessary for registering intent and maintaining state information.

The draft identifies a need for a common coordination point to complement existing cryptographic assurances like Verifiable Intent. Furthermore, EMVCo is exploring "Know Your Agent" (KYA) capabilities and Agentic Transaction Indicators to help the ecosystem identify when an AI agent is acting for a human, communicating relevant agent attributes, and signalling agent involvement in a payment interaction. This development is expected to identify potential future enhancements to existing EMV technologies, including EMV 3-D Secure (3DS), EMV Payment Tokenisation, EMV Secure Remote Commerce (SRC), and the EMV Digital Payment Credential (DPC).

The framework is currently open for public review until Wednesday 30 September 2026. EMVCo’s dedicated Agentic Payments Task Force is leading the effort, collaborating with various industry partners including the FIDO Alliance, the OpenID Foundation, the OpenWallet Foundation, and W3C.

"Card-based agentic payments require a globally interoperable foundation that consumers, merchants and issuers can all trust. This publication marks an important step forward by outlining a consistent approach for establishing and communicating intent alongside payment-related information, and we encourage participants from across the industry to share their feedback to shape its ongoing development."

Junya Tanaka, EMVCo Executive Committee Chair.

The companies involved

EMVCo is a global technical body that creates and manages specifications and programmes to enable seamless card-based payments. It is collectively owned by six major international payment networks: American Express, Discover Network, JCB, Mastercard, UnionPay, and Visa. These member companies, along with hundreds of EMVCo Associates and Subscribers—including banks, merchants, and technology providers—collaborate to develop royalty-free specifications for technologies such as contact and contactless chips, QR codes, and tokenisation.

The organisation works alongside other industry standards bodies to ensure cross-sector compatibility. This includes the FIDO Alliance, which focuses on authentication standards; the OpenID Foundation, which manages identity protocols; and the OpenWallet Foundation, an initiative dedicated to open-source digital wallet interoperability. The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) also participates in these collaborative efforts to align web standards with payment protocols. By bridging the gap between traditional card networks and emerging AI-driven commerce, EMVCo maintains its position as the primary architect of the technical rules governing how money moves through card-based systems globally. Its specifications are used to develop products that deliver trusted in-store, online, and remote card-based payments.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has closely followed the evolution of the payment networks that govern EMVCo and the broader issuance landscape. Recently, we covered how Visa, _able, and Onafriq Partner to Expand Visa Flex Credential Across CEMEA Markets, highlighting the push for more flexible credentialing systems. We also reported on regional expansions of these standards in Anytap Launches Visa-Powered Payment Cards Across Asia Pacific to Bridge Digital and Fiat Spending. Additionally, the infrastructure supporting these global standards continues to grow, as seen when Nium Expands Global Infrastructure with Domestic Card Issuance Launch in the United States, a move that relies on the interoperable card-based frameworks managed by bodies like EMVCo.

What this means

The shift toward agentic payments represents a fundamental change in the merchant-consumer relationship, moving from active "checkout" to passive "delegation." By standardising "Intent Services," EMVCo is attempting to prevent a fragmented landscape where different AI agents and merchants use proprietary methods to verify authority. This puts significant pressure on traditional fraud detection systems, which are currently tuned for human behaviour rather than machine-to-machine logic. The industry must now grapple with the legal and technical liability of an AI agent exceeding its "cumulative budget." This framework is the first serious attempt to bring the wild west of AI commerce under the disciplined governance of the global card networks.