Ant International, Mastercard, and Visa have collaborated on Know-Your-Agent (KYA) interoperability to support agentic commerce across payment networks, digital wallets, agent platforms, and marketplaces.
The proposed framework would set shared principles for agent onboarding and identification across participating networks.
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However, each organisation would continue to apply its own verification and decision-making processes.
The initiative follows the introduction of separate agent protocols by the three companies. Visa has rolled out its Trusted Agent Protocol, Mastercard has introduced Verifiable Intent, and Ant International has launched its Agentic Mobile Protocol.
The companies will explore ways to align these protocols around common principles. The framework is intended to make agentic payment transactions easier to manage for service providers, agent platforms, and marketplaces, while retaining trust and risk controls.
Each agent would be connected to a validated operator, cardholder, business, or organisation. This would allow activity undertaken by an agent to be attributed to an identified party.
The framework also considers common certification requirements. Agents would be assessed against security and behavioural conditions to determine whether they are operating as expected.
In addition, agents would be monitored continuously using identity and transaction-related signals. The information would support ongoing evaluations and certification decisions.
The companies said the arrangement could reduce integration costs and speed up the launch of new agentic services.
The work will be undertaken through BuildFin.ai in Singapore and builds on the Safeguards for Agentic Finance at Runtime (SAFR) framework.
BuildFin.ai is a platform convened by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. It brings together financial institutions, technology providers, and researchers to develop and scale responsible AI solutions for financial services.
Visa global head of growth products and strategic partnerships Rubail Birwadker said: “Collaborations like this can help create more consistency, better accountability, and greater confidence across the payments ecosystem as AI-driven transactions become more common.”
Mastercard chief digital officer Pablo Fourez said: “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.
“Mastercard Verifiable Intent was designed for this open ecosystem, helping ensure that as commerce becomes more autonomous, every interaction remains secure, transparent and grounded in consent.”
Ant International chief innovation officer Jiang-Ming Yang said: “We look forward to expanding collaboration as the industry draws on richer signals – capabilities, behaviour, execution performance, and risk data – to enhance trust and simplify transactions for our clients and their customers.”
